AN INTERACTION PREDICTION APPROACH TO SOLVING PROBLEMS OF HIERARCHICAL PRODUCTION PLANNING IN FLEXIBLE AUTOMATION WORKSHOPS/

The present paper deals with hierarchical production planning in flexi ble automation workshops (FAWs). A mathematical model of hierarchical production planning (HPP) in FAWs is built up. The interaction/predict ion approach is then applied to solving the problem of HPP and to dedu cing the corresponding algorithm in detail. The algorithm has been emp loyed to develop the software package known as interaction/prediction algorithm (IPA), with the aid of which, we have researched into exampl es of HPP in FAWs. In this paper, the use of the algorithm is presente d in detail through one of the examples. As compared with the existing HPP approaches, the algorithm here is more applicable to decomposing optimally medium-term plans assigned to an FAW by CIMS/MRP II into sho rt-term plans executed by FMSs in the FAW.