Introduction for Integrated Process Planning and Scheduling

Abstract

Process planning and scheduling are two of the most important subsystems in manufacturing systems. In the traditional approach, process planning and scheduling were carried out sequentially. The researchers did not pay much attention to the integration of them. This approach has become an obstacle to improve the productivity and responsiveness of manufacturing systems. However, in fact, the Integrated Process Planning and Scheduling (IPPS) can greatly enhance the productivity of the manufacturing system. Therefore, IPPS has attracted more and more researchers and engineers. IPPS is one of the most complicated NP-complete combinational optimization problems.