An algorithm for scheduling batches of parts in a multi-cell flexible manufacturing system

This research addresses the problem of scheduling batches of parts in a flexible manufacturing system (FMS). Due to the use of serial access material-handling systems in many FMSs, the problem is modeled for a multi-cell FMS with flowshop characteristics. A branch and bound solution method is developed which exploits the special structure of the problem to develop strong lower bounds. Numerical computations show that the branch and bound algorithm solves large size problems in a reasonable time. Computational results are provided for a variety of test problems. (c) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.