A DUE DATE-BASED APPROACH TO PART TYPE SELECTION IN FLEXIBLE MANUFACTURING SYSTEMS

Nearly all of the literature on part type selection for flexible manuf acturing systems has focused on maximizing throughput. We present an a pproach for part type selection in which meeting due dates is the prim ary objective. The approach is based on the idea of using information from the solution of an approximate, aggregate scheduling problem as t he basis for determining release priorities. The need for the approxim ation and aggregation arises because the exact machine configuration ( partitioning of identical machines into groups, and loading of tools) cannot be decided until the parts are selected. We develop and evaluat e several different policies for setting release priorities in a conte xt where the approximate, aggregate schedule is constructed using list scheduling (dispatching) rules. The results indicate that using infor mation from such a schedule to set release priorities performs far bet ter than using simpler procedures.