Cloud-based Job Dispatching Using Multi-criteria Decision Making

Abstract

The dynamic nature of modern workshops and the change in availability of manufacturing equipment affects the allocation of manufacturing jobs. In order to cope with these requirements a module that ranks manufacturing equipment and proposes the best fitted machine to perform a specific manufacturing task according to capabilities, availability and suitability is needed. This paper presents such a framework for allocating tasks to manufacturing equipment according to the capabilities, the availability and the running cost of the manufacturing equipment. The decisions are made by using a multi-criteria decision making tool running in a Cloud environment with data being fed through web based protocols. The novelty of the proposed system lies in the fact that the solution is based on a Cloud Manufacturing environment and the selection process is based on the latest information regarding the machine tool data, received through a web interface. The functionality of the module is illustrated through a case study.