Abstract
This paper discusses an optimal scheduling problem for a three-machine robotic cell with finite buffer for WIP's (Work-In-Process) such as FMC's (Flexible Manufacturing Cells), where jobs are processed on three machines in the same order, and sent between machines by a transportation robot. The objective is to find an optimal schedule that minimizes the maximum completion time (i.e., the makespan). In this paper we propose heuristic algorithms employing a fuzzy inference and tabu search technique. Numerical experiments show that the proposed heuristics give good approximate schedules for any size of buffer capacity.
