Approaches to Complexity and Uncertainty of Scheduling in Process Industries: Process Regulation in Highly Automated Systems

In process industries functional relations between the different organisational levels are difficult to define. While it is possible to describe the relationship of resources considered at the various levels and thereby form an integrated information system, it is nearly impossible to achieve a full functional integration within a computerised system. This leaves a gap in functionality between planning oriented business levels and execution oriented process levels. In practice this gap has been closed by human experts at plant level. With new computerised systems on the market it is necessary to reassess the role of the human experts at plant level and see how they can interact between production planning and scheduling systems and process control systems.