Pre-planning in distributed manufacturing systems: a sample path approach

A discrete, event-driven model that allows for pre-planning of orders in a manufacturing system is presented. Being part of a more comprehensive, distributed framework, one autonomous entity and its needs are addressed. Those requirements are cost-effective when coping with delays of orders, e.g. due to resource failure, and when dynamically adding newly acquired orders to an existing schedule, including the option to interrupt a currently processed order. Sample path and perturbation analysis techniques are applied to find a cost-optimal solution. As this deterministic approach is simple and effective, it seems suitable for employment in a distributed decision environment.