New Short Term Planning and Scheduling Mathematical Model for Flexible Batch Manufacturing Systems

In this paper a new approach is developed to tackle a real problem for short term production planning and scheduling work shop. A comprehensive binary mathematical model for a flexible batch manufacturing system based on the JIT philosophy and the group technology is developed. Each job is consisting of a batch of homogeneous parts and the ready time with the due date is determined. There are a number of machines in each work station process different jobs and the setup time is independent on the sequence of processing. There are nineteen constraints imposed on the formulation of the model. Some of these constraints are relating to the number of tools available and the time required for each job not to be exceed from what was specified. The objective function is composed of three main components which expressed as a function of the profit gained by production of each job, tardiness penalty cost, and setup penalty cost. The objective function is maximized such that the production of neither one of the jobs exceeds its demand, and also the available processing time and the tool magazine capacity at each work station are not exceeded. The developed model is tested by example which shows the effects of all model parameters and constraints. WinQSB software is used to implement the mathematical model. This research can be considered as the first attempt approach to solve a real short term planning and scheduling problem facing the advanced workshops for Flexible Manufacturing Systems.