SIMULATION OF INTELLIGENT HIERARCHICAL FLEXIBLE MANUFACTURING - BATCHJOB ROUTING IN OPERATION OVERLAPPING

We present an approach to embedding expert systems within an object-or iented simulation environment that facilitates the creation of classes of expert system model elements that fan be interfaced with other mod el components. Previous work has shown how distributed expert systems can be defined as modular components of simulations models, This artic le illustrates their usefulness in fractal architectures for flexible manufacturing, as proposed in the literature. Alternate structures (re configured structures) of a proposed hierarchical factory architecture can be generated through the recursive pruning process, Such rapid pr ototyping should greatly enhance the ability to investigate alternativ e architectural solutions to manufacturing problems in a timely manner .