Concurrent scheduling in flexible automation

The authors propose a method for solving the static scheduling problem in the production control of manufacturing systems with flexible automation. They propose a concurrent approach for decision-making at the detailed static scheduling level. Defining illustrative small problems and implementing this concurrent scheduling approach on them, the authors show that machine utilization and productivity can be improved with respect to the sequential approach. They provide a mathematical programming network heuristic that performs well on larger problems. By considering the simultaneous effects of primary and secondary resources when generating detailed schedules, the concurrent approach captures the designed flexibility as much as possible during the operational control of a system with flexible automation.