Optimisation-based scheduling method and system for a plurality of manufacturing machines

A method of generating manufacturing scheduling data, comprising:

• receiving input data, the input data comprising:
• at least one product to be manufactured;
• at least one sequence of steps associated with each of the at least one product to be manufactured;
• and at least one constraint associated with each of the at least one sequence of steps;
• performing a plurality of different simulations of manufacturing the at least one product to be manufactured;
• wherein each of the plurality of different simulations uses different simulation parameters;
• and wherein each simulation determines a probability of breach of at least one of the at least one constraints;
• determining a manufacturing schedule of the at least one product to be manufactured using the determined probability of breach of at least one of the at least one constraints;
• determining a priority of each step in the at least one sequence of steps based on the determined manufacturing schedule;
• generating manufacturing scheduling data, wherein the manufacturing scheduling data comprises one or more of the at least one sequence of steps associated with each of the at least one product to be manufactured and the determined priorities of the one or more of the at least one sequence of steps associated with each of the at least one product to be manufactured;
• outputting the generated manufacturing scheduling data.

A method of generating scheduling data for manufacturing comprising:

• receiving input data, the input data comprising a plurality of products to be manufactured and a plurality of tasks to be performed by each of a plurality of machines and wherein each of the plurality of tasks to be performed has a priority value associated therewith;
• performing one or more simulations, each simulation determines a predicted outcome of at least some of the tasks to be performed, based on the availability of the plurality of machines and any pre-determined constraints, along with a probability of breaching any constraints;
• determining a substantially optimal predicted outcome of the one or more simulations using pre-determined criteria;
• generating scheduling data comprising an ordered set of tasks per machine based on the simulation used to determine the substantially optimal predicted outcome;
• and
• instructing the plurality of machines to perform the plurality of tasks using the generated scheduling data to produce at least some of the plurality of products to be manufactured.

A method of generating scheduling data for manufacturing comprising:

• receiving input data, the input data comprising a plurality of products to be manufactured and a plurality of tasks to be performed by each of a plurality of machines and wherein each of the plurality of tasks to be performed has a priority value associated therewith;
• using a predictive model of the plurality of machines to determine a substantially optimal order of tasks per machine, based on the availability of the plurality of machines and any pre-determined constraints, along with a probability of breaching any constraints, is output;
• and
• generating scheduling data comprising an ordered set of tasks per machine wherein scheduling data is operable to be used by the plurality of machines to manufacture at least some of the plurality of products to be manufactured.