Real-time production control of an FMS in a produce-to-order environment

This paper deals with real-time control of an FMS, operating in a produce-to-order environment, with machines subject to failure. A two-level production control system (PCS) is developed and examined. The proposed PCS incorporates three principles: no need for pre-planning procedures; separation between due-date and operational considerations; and full exploitation of process flexibility. In an extensive series of simulation experiments it was demonstrated that the proposed PCS leads to good results in both criteria: maximum throughput and minimum tardiness of orders. A comparison study between this PCS and one which is not based on separation between due-date and operational considerations, indicated the advantage of the former.