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Setup scheduling of manufacturing systems as the art of juggling. (English) Zbl 0934.90028

Summary: The problem of detailed scheduling of complex flexible manufacturing systems is addressed by optimal flow control. A model problem of scheduling parallel machines is considered to obtain necessary setup conditions. Studying the conditions results in a new solution approach that takes advantage of a juggling analogy of the production/setup scheduling. This analogy is used in the paper to direct construction of a solution method. The method searches for a globally optimal schedule by means of both a juggling strategy and a method of global optimization. The results obtained for a model problem are then generalized to systems with complex production and setup operations. Computational examples demonstrate the validity of the approach.

MSC:

90B25 Reliability, availability, maintenance, inspection in operations research
90B30 Production models
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