A Constraint Programming Approach to the Optimal Scheduling of Flexible Manufacturing Systems with Resource Limitations

LUIS J. ZEBALLOS; OSCAR D. QUIROGA; GABRIELA P. HENNING

COMPUTERS IN INDUSTRY

ELSEVIER

Lugar: TRABAJO ENVIADO; Año: 2006 p. 1 - 44

0166-3615

TRABAJO ENVIADO This paper is concerned with the short-term scheduling of a class of Flexible Manufacturing Systems (FMSs) in which a given number of parts is processed. The processing sequence involves several operations on parts which are executed by multiple machines. The system has a limited number of tools of each type, which have to be assigned to machines. In turn, each tool has a limited life cycle. A novel Constraint Programming (CP) formulation that tackles the problem in a global way by considering the tool allocation, machine assignment, part routing and scheduling decisions altogether in the formulation, is presented. The proposed approach, which is able to take into account a variety of objective functions, has been successfully applied to the solution of different size problems. Optimal schedules were reached in quite reasonable CPU times.