Improved Domain Modeling for Realistic Automated Planning and Scheduling in Discrete Manufacturing

Current production planning and scheduling systems in automation do not meet the requirements of modern individualized production. Today's, static production processes impede customized manufacturing and small-scale production. A new way of thinking towards a dynamic control is required. This paper focuses on automated integrated process planning and scheduling on control level in discrete manufacturing. Existing algorithms in artificial intelligence planning are applied to solve process planning and scheduling problems. The challenge is to model the manufacturing system and products in a way that automated planners can generate efficiently process plans and schedules. Hence, based on a general classification of operations, different modeling options with regard to a successful automated process planning and scheduling are discussed. As a result, a domain modeling approach for discrete manufacturing is presented.