Application of Multi Objective Optimization in Prioritizing and Machine Scheduling: a Mobile Scheduler Toolkit

This paper presents a new multi objective algorithm to determine optimal configurations of multi-state, multi-task production systems based on availability analysis. A multitask production system is one in which different subsets of machines can be used to perform distinct functions or tasks. The performance of a manufacturing system is greatly influenced by its configuration. Availability can be used in the context of multi-task production systems to select a particular configuration that maximizes the probability of meeting a required demand for each specific task, or the expected productivity for each task. A particular configuration may not simultaneously maximize the probability of meeting demand for each of the individual tasks, and thus, the problem is treated as a multi-objective optimization problem. The solution to this problem is a set of promising solutions that provides a trade-off among the different objective functions considered.