Micro-Opportunistic Scheduling: The Micro-Boss Factory Scheduler

Abstract

A major challenge for research in production management is to develop new finite-capacity scheduling techniques and tools that (1) can account more precisely for actual production management constraints and objectives, (2) are better suited for handling production contingencies, and (3) allow the user to interactively manipulate the production schedule to reflect idiosyncratic constraints and preferences not easily amenable to representation in the computer model. This paper describes Micro-Boss, a decision-support system for factory scheduling currently under development at Carnegie Mellon University. Micro-Boss aims at generating and maintaining high-quality realistic production schedules by combining powerful predictive, reactive, and interactive scheduling capabilities. Specifically, the system relies on new micro-opportunistic search heuristics that enable it to constantly revise its scheduling strategy during the construction or repair of a schedule. These search heuristics are shown to be more effective than less flexible scheduling techniques proposed in the Operations Research and Artificial Intelligence literature.