Integration of process planning and scheduling - a review

In recent years, a few researchers have addressed the need for the integration of process planning and scheduling functions in order to achieve superior overall system performance. Many of these researchers have discovered that the potential savings are substantial when process planning and scheduling are integrated. It has been reported that typical scheduling objectives, such as minimizing makespan, maximizing equipment utilization, etc, can be significantly improved as the result of integration of these two important manufacturing system functions. In this paper, we present a review of the reported research in this area, discuss the extent of applicability of various approaches, and suggest directions for future research.