This paper presents a scheduling problem of a flexible manufacturing cell (FMC), which consists of a computer controlled machining centre, a robot, a buffer storage, a setup platform constrained with two job-mounting tables, and a rail guided vehicle. In recent years, much interest has been shown in the application of genetic algorithm (GA) in schedule generation because of its evolutionary nature. In this context, a GA has been proposed for the purpose of generating dynamic schedules that can subsequently provide a control programme for the operation of its hardware components. The proposed GA procedure has been validated by comparing it with the results of a few processing time-related priority dispatching rules. The makespan time criterion has been considered as a measure of performance in the comparative study. Further, it is indicated that this genetic search process will be very much useful in developing a learning process for the operation and control scheme. © 1998 Published by Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.