COMBINATORIAL OPTIMIZATION MODELS FOR PRODUCTION SCHEDULING IN AUTOMATED MANUFACTURING SYSTEMS

Production planning and scheduling models arising in automated manufac turing environments exhibit several features not encountered in models developed for traditional production systems. For instance, models of automated facilities typically include tooling constraints which refl ect the possibility for a machine to use different tools in order to p erform successive operations, within limits imposed by the size of the tool magazine. Also, these models often account for the existence of flexible material handling systems whose activities must be synchroniz ed with the machining operations in order to optimize system utilizati on. In this paper, we describe a few interesting combinatorial optimiz ation problems proposed in this framework, we point to their relations hips with models investigated in seemingly remote areas, and we identi fy a number of challenging open problems. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B. V.