New developments for machine shop control in the batch manufacturing industry

Many of the problems encountered by production control in the batch manufacturing industry could be significantly eased if reasonably accurate prediction of the production units response to given actions were available. In an attempt to provide a suitable prediction facility we have developed a dynamic simulation of a batch manufacturing machine shop which can be used for various types of product and with machine shop layouts varying from functional through to pure cellular. It can be applied to an on-line mode for daily machine shop control to assist in scheduling, to ensure satisfactory machine loadings and adequate attainment of finish dates. The effects of absenteeism and machine breakdowns can also be assessed. It can be used in an off-line mode together with associated algorithms to assist in the planning of resources.