Dynamic Scheduling of FMS Using a Fuzzy Logic Approach to Minimize Mean Flow Time

This paper is concerned with scheduling in Flexible Manufacturing Systems (FMS) using a Fuzzy Logic (FL) approach. Four fuzzy input variables: machine allocated processing time, machine priority, machine available time and transportation priority are defined. The job priority is the output fuzzy variable, showing the priority status of a job to be selected for the next operation on a machine. The model will first select the machines and then assign operations based on a multi-criteria scheduling scheme. System/machine utilization, minimizing mean flow time and balancing machine usage will be covered. Experimental and comparative tests indicate the superiority of this fuzzy based scheduling model over the existing approaches.