Scheduling of FMS using Intelligent Heuristic Search Algorithm (IHSA)

Flexible manufacturing system (FMS) is a production system. A flexible manufacturing system (FMS) is an arrangement of machines interconnected by a transport system. The transporter carries work to the machines on pallets or other interface units so that work-machine registration is accurate, rapid and automatic. This article presents a intelligent heuristic search algorithm (IHSA) for solving flow-shop problems with three machines and three jobs. Following its initial development the algorithm has been modified in two different ways in order to reduce backtracking and to improve its performance. The first modification concerns the choice of the largest heuristic functions to use, and the second modification concerns the way in which heuristic estimates at nodes on the search path are determined as the search progresses. Experimental evidence of the improved performance of the algorithm as a result of each of these modifications is presented.