A mixed integer program for loading and scheduling multiple flexible manufacturing cells

Abstract The loading and scheduling of multiple, flexible manufacturing cells is addressed. A fexible manufacturing system may contain two or more flexible manufacturing cells, where each cell is independent but receives its jobs from a common arrival queue. The procedure for this loading and scheduling is via a mixed integer programming formulation. Several objective functions are presented including: minimizing makespan, minimizing mean flowtime, and minimizing mean lateness. The paper contains a brief discussion of why loading of multiple flexible manufacturing cells is important. It also presents the problem and system in question, reviews the applicable past research and details the necessary assumptions. The mixed integer formulation is then presented and explained, followed by a discussion of the number of variables and constraints necessary to solve the program for a real world sized system. And finally, a simple numeric example is given.

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