Patent ID: 8315898

Claim:
A computer controlled system for planning and scheduling the work flow for a reconfigurable production system, the computer controlled system comprising: a plurality of modules, the reconfigurable production system comprising the plurality of modules, the plurality of modules having a plurality of alternative capabilities, the work flow comprising one or more jobs to be performed on the reconfigurable production system, each job comprising one or more work units to be produced on the reconfigurable production system; a system controller; a computer-readable memory that stores computer-executable instructions for execution by the system controller, the computer-readable instructions comprising instructions for: planning the production of work units of the one or more jobs without utilizing off-line modules, the planning comprising: selecting one or more work units to be planned, determining one or more system capabilities to produce the one or more work units, such that the off-line modules are not utilized, determining whether the system capabilities to produce the one or more work units are available without utilizing the off-line modules, and if the system capabilities to produce a work unit are not available without utilizing the off-line modules, prior to the work unit reaching the off-line modules, tagging, by the system controller, the work unit with the system capabilities needed for the work unit which are not available, prior to the work unit reaching the off-line modules, removing, by the system controller, the work unit and all subsequent work units of the same job from consideration, and reinserting, by the system controller, the work unit and all subsequent work units when the system capabilities needed by the work unit become available, and scheduling the production of the one or more work units without utilizing the off-line modules, wherein the off-line modules are modules of the reconfigurable production system that are temporarily unavailable to produce work units, the reconfigurable production system continues to produce work units while the work unit is removed from consideration, and the work units of each job are produced in order, wherein the system capabilities are operations that accept the work unit at an entry port, process the work unit, and move the work unit to an exit port.