Next Generation Production Scheduling For Discrete Industries
Assume for a moment that you are the production manager for a company that produces discrete products such as industrial equipment, high-tech electronics devices, medical equipment, or automotive parts. Over the past several years, your company has grown, new products have been introduced, and new, more efficient manufacturing equipment has been procured. You've attacked your product structures to eliminate levels in the bill of materials and you have re-engineered your manufacturing processes to eliminate waste wherever possible. It was never easy to schedule your factory and you thought these changes would help, but as time has passed, it has become increasingly difficult to effectively plan the production activities of your factory. You find yourself and your planners working long hours to schedule the factory and are constantly reacting to fire drills. If things don't start to change, you may as well bring in a few cots and start sleeping over. What happened?
Market pressures have forced your company to increase customer service by offering new and customized products in shorter and shorter lead times. Competitors have started to emerge from all over the world and your customers now have access to information on price and availability on a global scale. You are also under pressure to reduce operating expenses and cash requirements. Some time ago you implemented a comprehensive ERP system to help your business compete. Now things definitely run better, but for some reason you still struggle to increase throughput and schedule the minute-to-minute activities of the factory floor. Your ERP system includes planning modules for master production scheduling (MPS), material requirements planning (MRP), distribution requirements planning (DRP), and capacity requirements planning (CRP). So, what's the problem? The problem is simply that none of these planning systems were actually designed to schedule your factory. Basically, you do not have the correct tool for the job.
The balance of this paper examines:
- What's Wrong With the Way You Schedule Today?
- Why is Finite Planning Important?
- What's the Current State of Scheduling Technology?
- The J.D. Edwards Difference
- The Next Generation: Constraint Directed Search