A FRAMEWORK FOR INVESTIGATING SCHEDULE ROBUSTNESS UNDER UNCERTAINTY

The batch processing manufacturing environment is subject to a high de gree of uncertainty. One of the key issues in producing practical proc ess schedules in such an unfavourable environment is the assessment of their robustness under uncertainty. This paper shows how Monte-Carlo based simulation models, implemented within the framework of the BATCH ES simulator, can be used for this purpose, starting with the automate d implementation of a given schedule into the simulation models, then running the various replicates of the simulation acid finally analysin g their results. In addition, the possibility of feeding back the simu lation results to the scheduling model is also discussed, paving the w ay towards the development of a more effective reactive scheduling sys tem.