Dynamic capacity allocation in manufacturing systems with significant setup times

Considers setup scheduling as one level of decision making in a hierarchical control approach for manufacturing systems. From a flow control model used in the hierarchy, production targets are determined which are to be tracked in the setup level using a “corridor policy”. The authors´ results show that simple linear corridor policies can possibly lead to a chaotic behavior for production. The authors suggest an alternative policy which allows the flexibility of different setup sequences depending on initial conditions