A comprehensive survey and future trend of simulation study on FMS scheduling

Since the late 1970s when the ®rst collection of papers on scheduling of ¯exible manufacturing systems (FMSs) has been published, it has been one of the most popular topics for researchers. A number of approaches have been delivered to schedule FMSs including simulation techniques and analytical methods, whereas the former is the most widely used tool for modeling FMSs. The objective of this paper is to review scheduling study on FMSs and analyse future trend that employed simulation techniques as the analyzing tool. Scheduling methodologies are categorized into, namely traditional simulation techniques with single criterion scheduling approaches, traditional simulation techniques with multi-criteria scheduling approaches, and arti®cial intelligence (AI) approaches in FMSs. It is concluded that AI approaches will be dominating in future study.