A Fuzzy-Logic-Based Methodology forBatchProcess Scheduling

We introduce a formalscheduling methodology forbatchprocesses basedonfuzzy logic theory. Inparticular, wepresent this methodology inthemanufacturing context. Our approach takesintoaccount most,ifnotall, relevant factors inthisscheduling problemandmodelsthemasfuzzysets. In themodeldeveloped forfactory batchprocess scheduling, the inputs include the"literal" jobpriority, job'scritical ratio, thelength ofeachqueue,job's currentrelative position in itsprocess flow, etc.Themodeloutputs theeffective priority valueforeachqueue,baseduponwhichscheduling decisions aremade.On numerical examples, we illustrate theuseof ourmodelandshowthecorrectness andeffectiveness ofour model.Moreimportantly, we wereabletoshowthatthe batchprocessors' utilization couldbe increased andjobs' average lateness (with respect totheinternal deadline) reduced significantly byapplying ourmethodology.