Simulation based real-time scheduling method for holonic manufacturing systems - Method for reducing calculation time of simulation

Real-time scheduling processes based on the utility values have been proposed and applied to the Holonic Manufacturing Systems (HMS), in the previous papers. A simulation based procedure has also been implemented to estimate the future status of HMS and to determine the utility values aiming at improving scheduling method. However, it was assumed that only one holon in the HMS carries out the estimation for the ease of the estimation process. A simulation based real-time scheduling method is newly proposed, in the paper, to improve the estimation process which enable all the holons to estimate the future status of the HMS.