A Weighted Load Balancing Heuristic that Minimizes Makespan in Alternative Routing and Machine Environment

Abstract

Abstract Traditionally, the problems of manufacturing technology and manufacturing management have been treated independently. The process planning problem and the scheduling problem are a good example. In this research, we propose a scheduling system which solves the process planning problem and the scheduling problem simultaneously. We argue that we can obtain a better and practical scheduling solution by dynamically changing the processing machines and operations as the shop condition changes. The proposed scheduling system takes the initial process plan for alternative machines and operations represented by an AND/OR graph as its input. Other informational inputs to the system are part order and shop status. The system then generates new process plans and schedules iteratively, until we finally fix the process plan after verifying the performance of the schedules by a simulation study. Experimental results show that the proposed scheme provides a viable solution for real world scheduling problems.