AN INTEGRATED PLANNING AND CONTROL SYSTEM FOR SCHEDULING

In recent years, due to highly competitive market conditions, it has become necessary for manufacturing systems to have quick response times and high flexibility. Flexible manufacturing systems have been developed over the last two decades to help manufacturing industry more towards the goal of flexibility. FMS can produce multiple types of products using various resources. FMS require the development of an efficient and effective methods for integrated production planning and control. Use of flexible manufacturing systems increase productivity, decrease costs of goods and services, increases varieties of products, shorter product development cycle, and improve equipment utilization.Production planning and control in FMS are more difficult than those of mass production systems. The primary objective of manufacturing planning and control system is to ensure that the desired products are manufactured at the right time, in the right quantities, meeting quality specifications, and at minimum cost. To take full advantages of the FMS for production, a good scheduling system is needed. Scheduling in FMS should include three aspects in order to exploit system flexibility potential: Machine set up or tool changing, part routing, and operations .