A QoS-based GFAM scheduling approach for manufacturing grid

In order to resolve resource scheduling problem in Manufacturing Grid (MG) to handle dynamic changes in the availability of manufacturing resources and user requirements, and to provide scalable, controllable, measurable, and easily enforceable policies for the management of manufacturing resources, we propose a QoS (Quality of Service)-based scheduling system Manufacturing Grid Resource Scheduler (MGRS). In MGRS, we make some necessary definitions, such as the QoS-based manufacturing task/sub-task, QoS-based manufacturing resource, and then deduce the Resource-Task Matching (RTM) matrix for resource scheduling. Based on these definitions and deductions, this paper sets up the Group decision-making Fuzzy Analytic hierarchy process Model (GFAM), with resources' QoS attributes as the evaluation criteria, and the Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (FAHP) and Group Decision-Making (GDM) as the arithmetic basis. The goal of the GFAM is to select a most suitable resource from the authorized resource lists to match each submitted task with the better QoS performance, such as the higher user satisfaction, product quality and service, as well as the lower failure rate, time-to-market, and cost, etc. Furthermore, the GFAM model is applied in MG, and the results show that it is a very useful solution for resource scheduling during the process of products manufacturing.