Robust production control against propagation of disruptions

In hierarchical production control systems, planning decides on capacities and operations so as to meet demand, while scheduling should guarantee the execution of production plans even in face of uncertainties. The management practice advocates rolling horizon approaches despite the danger of plan nervousness. We propose a novel framework to handle uncertainties closer to the root of their sources, when scheduling local resources. The method keeps the complexity of planning and scheduling at bay and stops the propagation of local disruptions to other resources. The paper presents the theoretical model, the solution technique, and shows their applicability on a case study taken from the tool industry. (C) 2011 CIRP.