Cooperative scheduling environment based on editing and simulation for manufacturing systems

A computer-supported scheduling system that is a human-computer cooperative environment for planning an operations schedule in a manufacturing system is proposed. The cooperation entails of computer simulation with complex constraint manipulation and human editing to evaluate and modify the simulated schedule. The proposed scheduling environment is not aimed at constructing the optimal schedule automatically but at offering a system in which a human planner interacts with a computer to modify freely a desirable schedule using a schedule editor. The essential methodology used in this system consists of carrying out simulation in both the forward and backward time directions, applying human scheduling knowledge, and meeting the physical, temporal, and causal constraints