A production sequencing advisor in an anthropocentric manufacturing cell

During a production period, members of an anthropocentric manufacturing cell will have an agreed workload to process. The sequence in which this workload is processed by the resources in the cell can effect the ability of the cell team to meet their targets. Within a manufacturing cell, there may be many ways in which work on resources can be sequenced. It is recognised that there are many scheduling rules which are available to assist in this task. There are several performance measurements by which the effectiveness of a schedule can be measured. The problem is for the cell team to find the most appropriate scheduling rule which best meets their current performance criteria. The objective of the sequencing adviser system is not to produce an answer generator. The objective is to utilise the skill of the users such that the computer system advises the user on the most appropriate scheduling rule. The sequencing advisor uses a multi-attribute ranking model to enable comparisons between scheduling rules based upon user-defined weightings on the performance criteria in the cell. The work was undertaken as part of the pan European research BRITE/EURAM Project 3302. The objective of the project was to develop integrated decision support systems (DSSs) that will improve and support cooperation between business, design, planning and manufacturing activities. The project also aimed to develop technologies that support and enhance human skill and judgement. The sequencing adviser formed part of the Scheduling DSS.