Spatial-Temporal Finite Element Analytics for Real-time Advanced Planning and Scheduling of Cyber-Physical Smart Manufacturing

Abstract

Hybrid Flow Shop (HFS) problem is NP-hard in nature and commonly found in a variety of real-world scenarios such as electronics, textile, mold and die manufacturing, etc.. In the past few decades, considerable research efforts on this topic have been made given the complexity and practical relevance. However, more or less similar results are generated, which are theoretically optimal but lack of practical feasibility. This study develops a framework of Cyber-Physical System (CPS) factory and proposes a smart digitalization solution to achieve real-time visibility, traceability, and information sharing on manufacturing background. Also, a Spatial-Temporal Finite Element Analytics (STFEA) based on real-time cyber-physical visibility and traceability is innovated as a practical solution for combinatorial optimization problems encountered in a real-world manufacturing environment by minimizing the complexity and uncertainty. Deterministic mathematical models can thus be established and solved with simple optimization methods within a spatial-temporal window. A case study and comparison with other methods will be performed, and the impact of the spatial-temporal window size on results will be investigated in the near future.