Simulation-based scheduling package using generalized Petri net models

This paper describes the outline of the package which gives “good” feasible schedules for production systems. Such schedules are produced by systematic search using the simulator incorporated in the package. In the simulator, production systems are modeled by generalized Petri nets, and both forward and backward simulations can be carried out. These two alternatives offer us an earliest start schedule and a latest start schedule, respectively. As methods of making systematic search, a branch-and-bound method and heuristic methods using priority rules are incorporated at present, while the simulated annealing method and the genetic algorithm are left as future possibilities. It is assured by numerical experiments that the package can give reasonable solutions within reasonable computational time for several problems of comparatively small size