UPlanIT: an evolutionary based production planning and scheduling system.

In this paper we discuss an optimization approach to a real-world production planning problem. Based on raw data from instances of production planning we have developed an architecture for optimization of production planning and scheduling for manufacturing lines in small/medium enterprises (SME). The approach referred to as “Unified Planning using Intelligent Techniques”-abbreviated UPlanIT is based on genetic algorithms (GA). The schedules are constructed using rules in which the priorities are determined by the GA, using a procedure that generates parameterized activities. The approach is tested on a set of real standard production instances. The results validate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.