A control is disclosed for a product forming machine 10 (for example a glass bottle forming machine). The machine 10 includes a plurality of mechanisms 12, 22, 26, 31, 34, 38 displaceable between advanced and retracted positions under the control of valves V, V1-V6, the displacement of at least one of the mechanisms being divided up into at least two submotions. The thermal forming of the parison and bottle involves a predetermined number of thermal forming processes having finite durations. Each machine mechanism, etc., is turned "on" and "off' at selected times during a set machine cycle. A forming process which takes more than one machine cycle to complete is analysed to determine whether an optimised schedule is feasible. When a schedule is optimized, the analysis is done again with all the optimized values locked except one or more of the motion durations which are targeted at their maximum duration. This second optimization determines the motion durations at their longest possible setting so that the associated motion drivers (e.g. motors) can be concomitantly slowed down to minimize wear.
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