Method and apparatus for creating adaptive workflows
First Claim
1. A system, comprising:
- a scheduler, the scheduler comprising an aggregate planning level and a detailed scheduling level; and
means for monitoring the current state of a schedule produced by the scheduler and the execution of the schedule in a physical environment, said means for monitoring comprising a virtual representation of a physical environment in which the schedule is to be executed, said virtual representation comprising an integrated bill of materials and bill of resources for said physical environment, said bill of materials comprising a number of state nodes and said bill of resources comprising a number of task nodes, with the task nodes and the state nodes alternating with one another along one or more paths, wherein the means for monitoring comprises a workflow engine configured to receive updates from the physical environment during execution of the schedule.
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Abstract
A scheduling engine and an associated workflow engine may be configured to build workflows that describe sequences of tasks to be performed in a dynamically changing environment. The workflow engine may be configured to monitor the execution of the tasks within the environment and to provide the scheduling engine with information regarding deviations of task executions from the workflows. When such deviations are detected, the workflow engine may trigger the scheduling engine to rebuild the workflows for as yet uncompleted tasks. The scheduling engine may receive the information regarding the deviations via a declarative model of the physical environment. In general, the tasks may be a set of job requests to be processed in a manufacturing environment (e.g., a print shop). Also, the scheduling engine may be made up of an aggregate planner and a detailed scheduler. Aggregate plans for the jobs may be first made for the jobs and then passed to the detailed scheduler for timelining, etc. Building the aggregate plans may be accomplished by selecting a subset of the job requests according to a procedure for packing bins representing the resources of the manufacturing plant.
228 Citations
12 Claims
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1. A system, comprising:
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a scheduler, the scheduler comprising an aggregate planning level and a detailed scheduling level; and
means for monitoring the current state of a schedule produced by the scheduler and the execution of the schedule in a physical environment, said means for monitoring comprising a virtual representation of a physical environment in which the schedule is to be executed, said virtual representation comprising an integrated bill of materials and bill of resources for said physical environment, said bill of materials comprising a number of state nodes and said bill of resources comprising a number of task nodes, with the task nodes and the state nodes alternating with one another along one or more paths, wherein the means for monitoring comprises a workflow engine configured to receive updates from the physical environment during execution of the schedule. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4)
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5. An adaptive workflow system, comprising:
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a scheduling engine the scheduling engine comprising an aggregate planning level and a detailed scheduling level, configured to build workflows that describe a sequence of executing tasks to be performed in a dynamically changing environment; and
a workflow engine configured to monitor the execution of the tasks within the environment and to provide the scheduling engine with information regarding deviations of task executions from the workflows so as to trigger the scheduling engine to build new workflows for as yet uncompleted ones of the tasks, said new workflows being built from a model of the environment, which model includes an integrated bill of materials and bill of resources for the environment, the bill of materials comprising a number of state nodes and the bill of resources comprising a number of task nodes, with the task nodes and the state nodes alternating with one another along one or more paths. - View Dependent Claims (6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. A system, comprising:
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means for monitoring execution of workflows, comprised of an aggregate planning level and a detailed scheduling level, in a manufacturing environment, said means for monitoring comprising a virtual representation of the manufacturing environment which includes an integrated bill of materials and bill of resources for the manufacturing environment, the bill of materials comprising a number of state nodes and the bill of resources comprising a number of task nodes, with the task nodes and the state nodes alternating with one another along one or more paths; and
means for updating the workflows based upon the execution thereof. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12)
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Specification