Development of rules for production planning and control at the cell level

Many companies have implemented automated systems without having realized the full potential of integrating these systems. What is needed is a distributed decision making facility. This can be achieved by implementing a distributed production planning and control environment (DPP&C) that uses the four levels of the manufacturing controls hierarchy: factory, shop, cell and equipment. Many factory environments may not possess these facilities at all levels of the hierarchy. The author discusses the research investigations of the implementation of a reconfigurable production planning and control (PP&C) system at the cell level. The implementation enables the cell supervisor to make decisions regarding the planning and control of the operations within the cell. The decision aid is in the form of a table of options from which the cell supervisor (CS) will select the necessary options to run the cell efficiently. The author proposes some rules that the CS may utilize to assist in making decisions or the rules, when emulated may replace CS altogether