A grid-based scheduling system of manufacturing resources for a virtual enterprise

In this paper, a scheduling system of manufacturing resources for a virtual enterprise is built up based on grid technology. The scheduling system is composed of an exterior grid and an interior grid in the architecture, while the scheduling procedure of manufacturing resources in a virtual enterprise consists of two stages – distributed scheduling and local scheduling. The exterior grid is utilized to implement the distributed scheduling and the interior grid is used to accomplish the local scheduling. This paper illustrates the manufacturing system of a virtual enterprise based on an exterior grid and the manufacturing subsystem of a member enterprise based on an interior grid. Subsequently, the scheduling procedure of manufacturing resources within the virtual enterprise is described for a particular example. Finally, a case of collaborative production of a customized artificial joint (CAJ) in a virtual enterprise is applied to demonstrate the implementation of the scheduling system of manufacturing resources for the virtual enterprise. With grid technology, the efficiency of manufacturing resource scheduling in the virtual enterprise has been improved greatly.