A loosely-coupled deep reinforcement learning approach for order acceptance decision of mass-individualized printed circuit board manufacturing in industry 4.0

Printed Circuit Board (PCB) manufacturing is a kind of energy-intensive and pollution-intensive industries. With the increment of individualized requirements, PCB manufacturers face massive customized orders with a variety of specifications. The individualized customization on orders results in large differentials of the profit, energy consumption, and environmental pollution. Making energy-efficient order acceptance decisions can reduce carbon consumption and improve material utilization during the whole manufacturing process. An order acceptance decision model is established based on a loosely-coupled integration of deep learning and reinforcement learning techniques. Firstly, different from a simple assumption of the linear cost function in a small-scale manufacturing system, the deep learning algorithm is presented for accurately predicting the production cost, makespan, and carbon consumption of incoming PCB orders in the large-scale manufacturing system. Secondly, these predicted cleaner production indicators are combined with original order features to perform a reinforcement learning-based order acceptance decision. The proposed loosely-coupled deep reinforcement learning approach is verified with a dataset built based on data collected from a PCB manufacturer in China. This research is expected to provide an environment-friendly order acceptance decision-making approach for sustainable manufacturing in the Industry 4.0 context.