On the MTO production operations inspired by the pursuit-evasion game

In the present work, we performed a theoretical work to investigate how a make-to-order (MTO) company operates its producing plan for dealing with a rush-order-inserting problem. Firstly, we constructed two models, the time-minimized and cost-minimized model, to investigate the energy-cost generated by the prey during experiencing the pursuit-evasion game. Inspired by the natural pursuit-evasion game, two models have been extended and re-constructed to understand the cost of MTO company induced by the rush-order-inserting problem. In particular, the present results revealed that the optimal strategy adopted by the prey and the MTO manager are significantly coincident. This work provides helpful findings for operating the rush-order-inserting problem and indicates the natural behavior can be appropriately adopted to guide the manager’s decision making.

A Data-Driven Simulation-Based Optimisation Approach for Adaptive Scheduling and Control of Dynamic Manufacturing Systems

The increasing customisation of products, which leads to higher numbers of product variants with smaller lot sizes, requires a high flexibility of manufacturing systems. These systems are subject to dynamic influences and need increasing effort for the generation of the production schedules and for the control of the processes. This paper presents an approach that addresses these challenges. First, scheduling is done by coupling an optimisation heuristic with a simulation model to handle complex and stochastic manufacturing systems. Second, the simulation model is continuously adapted by real-time data from the shop floor. If, e.g., a machine breakdown or a rush order appears, the simulation model and consequently the scheduling model is updated and the optimisation heuristic adjusts an existing schedule or generates a new one. This approach uses real-time data provided by future cyber-physical systems to integrate scheduling and control and to manage the dynamics of highly flexible manufacturing systems.