Advanced hybrid scheduling system for manufacturing

The authors describe an advanced scheduling method based on a constraint-based scheduling editor and a Petri-net simulator. The advantage of this method is that the human scheduler can debug the schedule through a comprehensive Gantt chart and process chart. Backward scheduling, which is one function of the constraint-based scheduling editor, is found to be a powerful tool for due date scheduling. Computational experience indicates that the proposed approach is promising for generating and modifying a schedule, and for dynamic scheduling to respond to factory state changes.<<ETX>>