SCORE: an integrated system for dynamic scheduling and control of high-volume manufacturing

SCORE is a prototype dynamic scheduling system with rapid execution time that was developed for a high-volume manufacturing plant. The test-case environment is characterized by the complexity and size of the process structure, the high speed of the production flows, and the frequency of unexpected events that disturb the production process. The system has been developed with capabilities for: generating the resource allocation schedules for the shop floor; schedules generating the monitoring activities schedule to be performed by the shop floor controllers; monitoring the events occurring on the shop-floor and anticipating their impact on the manufacturing process; and performing corrective actions to the resource schedules whenever production is jeopardized by unexpected events. The system performs a closed-loop interaction with the network of shop-floor-controllers and work-center processors. The architectural approach adopted enables the integration and cooperation of multiple problem-solving techniques under the coordination of an interrupt-driven system supervisor