Using real time information for effective dynamic scheduling

In many production processes real time information may be obtained from process control computers and other monitoring systems, but most existing scheduling models are unable to use this information to effectively influence scheduling decisions in real time. In this paper we develop a general framework for using real time information to improve scheduling decisions, which allows us to trade off the quality of the revised schedule against the production disturbance which results from changing the planned schedule. We illustrate how our framework can be used to select a strategy for using real time information for a single machine scheduling model and discuss how it may be used to incorporate real time information into scheduling the complex production processes of steel continuous caster planning. 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.