Flow Shop Scheduling Optimization in the Chipboard Industry: A Simulation-based Analysis using Priority Dispatching Rules
- This paper gives insights on the usability of single priority and multi-criteria dispatching rules for production scheduling based on the results for a German chipboard manufacturing plant. A discrete-event simulation of the manufacturing process has been modeled to compare different priority rules with an expert-based sequence for a real set of jobs. The simulation results show that using one single or multi criteria priority dispatching rule on the total production system basically leads to a poor performance, whereas using different rules for each machine will enhance the overall performance. Higher performance can be achieved by the expert based scheduling and individual multi criteria dispatching rules. Hence, a dynamic modification of the production schedule by switching the dispatching rules according to the current performance is proposed, considering unforeseen disturbances.