JOINT PRODUCTION AND SUPPLY CONTROL IN THREE LEVELS FLEXIBLE MANUFACTURING SYSTEMS

This paper considers a stochastic optimal control problem of a three stages Flexible Manufacturing System. Both the supplier (i.e., downstream FMS) and the transformation stage are subject to random events. Our objective is to find a feedback control policy for the supply and production activities that minimizes a performance criterion: the incurred cost. It is shown that the considered joint production and supply control problem is difficult to tackle using a dissociated analytical approach. A simulation based approach is thus proposed to achieve a close approximation of the optimal policy. The advantages of the approach include possible extensions after numerical characterization of the optimal control policy.