The concept of state within one-of-a-kind real-time production control systems

Abstract

Real-time rescheduling for control of one-of-a-kind production systems is addressed. In order to perform real-time rescheduling, a model of the production control system and sufficient information about the rescheduling process must be available. Within control engineering there is a long experience in designing real-time control systems based on feedback. The concept of state known from modern control engineering is applied for real-time one-of-a-kind production control in this article. In order to document the applicability of the concepts from the control engineering praxis with real-time production control, a simulation system for production control based on the discussed principles is developed and implemented. A simulation example is presented in order to illustrate the potential of applying real-time control in production rescheduling. The concepts of state, performance index and feedback control are first shortly defined and then introduced into the production control context.