Dynamic programming solution to the stochastic multiple lot dispatching in an FMS

The production scheduling problem considered is related to the planning of operations of a flexible manufacturing cell composed of a punch press and a shear that produce parts from metal plates. A stochastic control problem is identified, to optimize the expected discounted cost of the system. The control consists in dispatching n bins to a processor unit which can process only one bin at a time. A dynamic programming approach is used, and numerical techniques are applied for the solution of the two-bin case. Numerical results are presented and discussed.<>