The interactive process between some dispatching mechanisms and interrupted machine centers in FMSs

Scheduling in flexible manufacturing systems (FMSs) differs from that conventional job shop because each operation of a job may be performed by any one of several machines. In the current paper, the interactive process between routing flexibility index (single route index up to 192 route index are classified into nine route flexibility indices), different interruption ratios (zero up to 100\% art:classified into six interruption indices), as well as 16 dispatching polices are studied. The dispatching mechanism that will perform the best with the considered measuring performance criteria for each route flexibility index and model configuration has been determined. Global conclusions and trend of variations have been highlighted. (C) 2000 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.