Network-based Support System for Decentralized Scheduling of Distributed Production Systems through Man-Machine Collaboration

In these days, many production systems are consist of several "production bases" and such bases are distributed in wide area. And they also form "production networks" such that each plant/factory produces intermediate materials of parts for other plants/factories. In order to operate such production networks efficiently, it is indispensable that some rational and sound operational strategy for realizing cooperative operation. In this work, "behaviour model" of scheduling activities in decentralized production networks was developed and the validity was confirmed. Next, a network-based support system for decentralized scheduling of distributed production systems through man-machine collaboration was developed based on the model together with the concept of "remote scheduling". A series of experiments were carried out in order to confirm that the model production system managed under the behaviour model could keep sound operations.