Flexible robotic cells combine the capabilities of robotic flow shops with those of flexible manufacturing systems. In an m-machine flexible cell, each part visits each machine in the same order. However, the m operations can be performed in any order, and each machine can be configured to...

The integrated production and transportation scheduling problem (PTSP) with capacity constraints is common in many industries. An optimal solution to PTSP requires one to simultaneously solve the production scheduling and the transportation routing problems, which requires excessive...

We study zero-inventory production-distribution systems under pool-point delivery. The zero-inventory production and distribution paradigm is supported in a variety of industries in which a product cannot be inventoried because of its short shelf life. The advantages of pool-point (or...

Cluster tools (also referred to as robotic cells) are extensively used in semiconductor wafer fabrication. We consider the problem of scheduling operations in an m-machine cluster tool that produces identical parts (wafers). Each machine is equipped with a unit-capacity input buffer and a...