Scheduling for just-in-time flexible manufacturing using adaptive fuzzy logic

Production scheduling for flexible manufacturing needs to satisfy multiple and often conflicting criteria. The multicriteria problem is generally diff icult to solve using existing heuristics without a means of combining rules and adapting them to changing circumstances. A scheduling system incorporating an adaptive fuzzy logic system is propose d which can be tailored to suit the characteristics and objectives of an or ganization and maintain its performance by constantly adapting to changes i n the production environment. The system developed indicates that its appli cation shows benefits in terms of the resulting schedule performance and wi th respect to the simplicity of the scheduling algorithms required. The com putational overhead of the fuzzy system is also shown to be insignificant, thus permitting real-time operation in a manufacturing situation.