Simulation-based dynamic shop floor scheduling for a flexible manufacturing system in the industry 4.0 environment

The Industry 4.0 environment enables direct communication between the manufacturer's shop floor and a customer. Thus, the manufacturer is able to respond to the customers' requests more quickly, meaning that manufacturers must now more tightly control the shop floor planning and scheduling. Here we present a simulation-based scheduling model for Flexible Manufacturing System dynamic shop-floor control. The customer's order and the processing sequence table of the products are imported into the simulation model. Experiments are implemented for the case wherein the system encounters unexpected conditions. The proposed approach represents a potential tool for manufacturers to make decisions in the real time by further connecting to the Enterprise Resource Planning and Manufacturing Execution System.