Scheduling decisions in FMS using a heuristic approach

The paper deals with the multilevel scheduling decisions of a Flexible Manufacturing System (FMS) to generate realistic schedules for the efficient operation of the FMS. The primary concern of an Operations Management System (OMS) for a FMS is production scheduling, Material Handling System (MHS) scheduling, Automated Storage/Retrieval System (AS/RS) operation and control and tool management. Scheduling is a critical issue and determines how efficiently the production resources are utilised and how the selected parts are affected in the system. In this paper, the integrated scheduling of FMS, namely, the production scheduling conforming with the MHS scheduling, is addressed. An enumerative heuristic is used, namely Giffler and Thompson, which is an evolutionary combining a Genetic Algorithm (GA) and a stochastic neighborhood search technique using a Simulated Annealing (SA) algorithm is employed.A. Noorul Haq received his PhD in Manufacturing Management from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), New Delhi, India, a Master of Engineering degree from Madras University, and a Bachelor of Engineering degree from Annamalai University, India. He is currently an assistant professor in the Department of Production Engineering, Regional Engineering College, Tiruchirappalli 620015, India. His research interests include aggregate production planning, facility layout and scheduling and optimisation techniques.T. Karthikeyan received his Master's degree from Bharathidhasan University. Currently, he is a research scholar in the Department of Production Engineering, Regional Engineering College, Tiruchirappalli 620015, India. His research interests includes facility layout, FMS and simulation.M. Dinesh received his bachelor's degree in engineering from Bharathiar University, India and is currently working on his master's degee in engineering in the Department Of Production Engineering, Regional Engineering College, Tiruchirappalli 620015, India. His current research interests are in optimisation techniques, facility layout and scheduling.