A multi-criteria adaptive control scheme based on neural networks and fuzzy inference for DRC manufacturing systems

Manufacturing systems are uncertain and dynamic systems, hence, they require real-time scheduling to adapt to changing manufacturing conditions. Current real-time scheduling approaches have been devised mainly for machine-only constrained systems, in which the shop capacity is constrained only by machine capacity, rather than for dual resource constrained (DRC) systems, in which the shop capacity is constrained by machine and worker capacity. In particular, there is no study on DRC system scheduling in which the 'where' and 'when' worker assignment rules, basic features of DRC systems, are altered in real-time (dynamically selected) to respond to new manufacturing conditions. Besides, multi-criteria DRC system scheduling has not yet been addressed extensively. Also, there has been little research on the interactions of dynamically selected job dispatching, worker assignment and job routing rules, which have a significant impact on DRC system performance. This paper proposes a multi-criteria real-time scheduling methodology for DRC systems to address these issues, and investigates these interactions. The methodology employs artificial neural networks as meta-models to reduce computational complexity and a fuzzy inference system to cope with multiple performance criteria. Various simulation experiments demonstrate that the methodology provides satisfactory results for real-time DRC systems scheduling.