Heuristic Scheduling Algorithm for Flexible Manufacturing Systems with Partially Overlapping Machine Capabilities

This paper presents a new heuristic scheduling algorithm for Flexible Manufacturing Systems (FMSs) with partially overlapping machine capabilities. Unlike traditional ‘routing then sequencing’ methods, the algorithm solves routing and sequencing sub-problems of FMS scheduling simultaneously by combining several dispatching rules. The primary objective is to take advantage of the system flexibility provided by partially overlapping machine …