Late work minimization in a small flexible manufacturing system

The paper concerns a small flexible manufacturing system consisting of three CNC machines: a lathe machine, milling machine and measurement center and a single robot, located at the Poznan University of Technology. A short description of the production environment, which can be modeled as the extended job shop system with open shop sections within particular jobs, is followed by the proposition of a branch and bound method. It optimizes production plans within a single shift in order to minimize the late work, i.e. the amount of work executed after a given due date. Based on results of computational experiments, conclusions are formulated on the efficiency of the B&B algorithm and on the behavior of FMS under consideration. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.