Small Grant for Exploratory Research: Technology ConstrainedProcess Planning

分立产品的制造商还没有充分利用计算机的力量来提高他们的性能。具体地说，大多数制造商使用的线性工艺计划是基于计划员对生产时哪台机器将是“最好的”的估计。这对工艺计划施加了不必要的约束，机器类型的选择是在不了解系统状态的情况下做出的。两者都有可能通过限制系统管理员用于调度和处理工作负载(调度和控制)的备选方案的范围来降低系统效率/效果。技术约束工艺计划(TCOPP)的长期目标是通过改进工艺计划、调度和控制来提高离散制造的效率和效果。这将通过1)基于技术约束的有向图的工艺计划规范；以及2)工艺计划的功能规范，而不是特定类别的工作站来实现。其结果将是增加可用于安排和控制工作量生产的自由度。资源分配将基于当前系统状态。可以合理地预期，扩大替代办法的范围和使用当前的系统状态将改善决策和系统的效率/效力。

Manufacturers of discrete products have not yet made full use of the power of the computer to improve their performance. In particular, most manufacturers use linear process plans that are based upon the planner's estimate of which machine will be "the best" at the time when the work pieces are produced. This imposes unnecessary constraints on the process plan and the machine type choice is made without current knowledge of the system's status. Both have the potential to reduce the system efficiency/effectiveness by restricting the system manager's domain of alternatives for dispatching and processing the workload (scheduling and control). The long term goal of Technology Constrained Process Planning (TCOPP) is to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of discrete manufacturing through improved processing planning, scheduling, and control. This will be accomplished through 1) the specification of process plans as directed graphs, based upon technological constraints; and 2) functional specification of the process plan, rather than a specific class of work station. The result will be an increase in the degrees of freedom available for scheduling and controlling the production of the workload. Resource assignments will be based upon current system status. The expanded domain of alternatives and use of current system status can reasonably be expected to improve decision making and system efficiency/effectiveness.