Online Production Scheduling and Re-Scheduling in Autonomous, Intelligent Distributed Environments

Abstract

The search for the automation of continuous production systems that are widely distributed, such as: electricity, oil production, water and others, is a complex problemdue to the existence of multiple production units, transport and distribution systems, multiple points of delivery that must be coordinated, the presence of constant changes in the demand and restrictions in the production units. Automation includes constant changes in the production goals that must be captured by the system and every productionmust self-adjust to these new goals. The production re-scheduling is imperatively on line because it implies evaluating the conditions of every unit in order to know the available capacity and how feasible it is to establish physical connections amongst the different units. In order to achieve one production goal and follow the process on line, in the event of a change in demand or a failure in any unit, an adjustment in the different assignment could be reached and comply with the new conditions of the system. In order to determine the scheduling of every unit, it is important to know its available capacity, production costs and how they should work with each other in order to obtain a product. Once the scheduling is obtained, it must be monitored constantly in order to know its progress and detect when the goal cannot be reached, so a new scheduling is done. The organizational structure of the production process must allow to maintain a knowledge in every production unit, where the acquisition of information and its processing may be centralized and distributed, establishing different approaches to determine the scheduling.