An Immune Algorithm for the integration of process planning and scheduling. (31st July 2008)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Tian, Ying; Jiang, Pingyu; Zheng, Mei
• Is Part Of: International journal of material & product technology. Volume 33:Number 1/2(2008)
• Page Start: 95
• Page End: 108
• Publication Date: 2008-07-31
• Subjects: immune algorithm -- process planning -- scheduling -- flexible manufacturing -- integration -- clonal selection -- affinity maturation; Manufacturing processes -- Periodicals; Materials -- Testing -- Periodicals; 620.11
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0268-1900

Abstract

Process planning may generate several feasible process plans for each job in flexible manufacturing environment. To get the global optimality, it is necessary to integrate the process planning with scheduling. An integration model for process planning and scheduling is proposed in this paper. On the basis of natural immune theory, an Immune Algorithm (IA) is presented to solve the integration problem. The algorithm is based on clonal selection and affinity maturation for finding optimal solutions. To demonstrate the efficiency of the IA, some numerical experiments are carried out and analysed. The experiment results show that the process planning and scheduling problems may be effectively solved simultaneously using the proposed IA approach.