Scheduling and Control of Flexible Manufacturing Systems - Some Experiences and Observations

Abstract

The scheduling and control of flexible manufacturing systems (FMSs) has received significant attention, because of the potential efficiency and economic gains that can be had from significant improvements in these areas. Most solutions to FMS scheduling and control problems lack consideration of overall system implications. As a result, several practical problems that arise in the control of unmanned FMS have not been well studied. In this paper, we address the nature of the control problem so that a resolvable framework for control can be achieved. Given this framework a specific control problem, namely system deadlock, is defined and discussed. Deadlock is a common problem in unmanned random route FMSs. The intent of this paper is to describe the FMS control problem and detail the system deadlock problem as it applies to FMS control.