The effectiveness of supervisory control strategies in scheduling flexible manufacturing systems

The results of an experimental study of the supervisory control of a simulated flexible manufacturing system (FMS) are discussed. A real-time simulator of an FMS, (Georgia Tech-FMS (GT-FMS)) was implemented and configured with data from a real manufacturing system. An experiment was run in which humans interacted with the automatic control system of GT-FMS with the goal of improving overall system performance by meeting due data while simultaneously minimizing inventory. Experimental results show that with human supervision both due data and inventory performance of GT-FMS can be improved. The results strongly support the idea of actively integrating humans into operational controls of automated manufacturing environments