A new method for workshop real time scheduling

Workshop real time scheduling is one of the key factors in improving manufacturing system efficiency. This is especially true for workshops in which various products are processed simultaneously, and use multipurpose machines. Real time scheduling is appropriate to handle perturbations in the environment of the manufacturing process, a major issue at the shop floor level. The products to be processed have release times and due dates and the resources are multipurpose machines. A decision support system for real time scheduling is described. It is based on an original approach, aiming at searching for characteristics of a set of schedules compatible with the main manufacturing constraints to be satisfied. This set of schedules is obtained by defining sequences of groups of permutable operations for every resource. A method to find such a set is described. We emphasize the use of this group sequence as a decision support system. Significant states and events requiring real time decisions are identified and three main types of decisions are analysed. For each of them, the proposed decision support system is detailed and explained.