Operating a factory

A device comprising:

• processor;
• and
• a non-transitory computer-readable data storage medium having recorded thereon a computer program comprising instructions for operating a factory that when executed by the processor causes the processor to configured to:
• obtain one or more manufacturing tasks, each manufacturing task being represented by an evolution law which describes a manufacturing of a product by one or more manageable machines using resources,
• obtain one or more manufacturing constraints,
• obtain one or more manufacturing events, and
• determine an operating mode of the factory based on the one or more manufacturing constraints and on one or more constraints on a product to manufacture, the processor being configured to determine the operating mode by one or more iterations of being configured to:
• compute, for each manufacturing task, a respective propensity of the manufacturing task, the propensity representing a frequency with which the task is chosen for manufacturing the product given the constraints and a previous occurrence of one or more of the manufacturing events,
• rank the one or more manufacturing tasks according to a descending order of their respective propensities,
• visit the one or more manufacturing tasks according to the ranking and, for each visited task, affecting, to the task, one or more manageable machines and resources for executing the task, and
• execute the one or more tasks until an occurrence of one or more of the manufacturing events.

A factory comprising:

• at least one manageable machine operable by an operating mode of the factory determined according to a program for operating a factory that when executed by a processor causes the processor to be configured to:
• obtain one or more manufacturing tasks, each manufacturing task being represented by an evolution law which describes a manufacturing of a product by one or more manageable machines using resources,
• obtain one or more manufacturing constraints,
• obtain one or more manufacturing events,
• determine an operating mode of the factory based on the one or more manufacturing constraints and on one or more constraints on a product to manufacture, the processor being configured to determine the operating mode by one or more iterations of being configured to:
• compute, for each manufacturing task, a respective propensity of the manufacturing task, the propensity representing a frequency with which the task is chosen for manufacturing the product given the constraints and a previous occurrence of one or more of the manufacturing events,
• rank the one or more manufacturing tasks according to a descending order of their respective propensities,
• visit the one or more manufacturing tasks according to the ranking and, for each visited task, affecting, to the task, one or more manageable machines and resources for executing the task, and
• execute the one or more tasks until an occurrence of one or more of the manufacturing events.