A PROGRESSIVE FIGURE-BASED PRODUCTION PLANNING SYSTEM FOR A COMPONENTMANUFACTURER

This paper describes the results of a practical project where a produc tion planning system for a component manufacturer was designed. The ch aracteristics of the planning problem made the methods implemented in standard PPC systems unsuitable for this situation. For this reason a progressive figure-based system was designed. Progressive figures are the cumulative material flow at certain checkpoints (e. g., material i nput to a work center, planned delivery) plotted against time, which a llows continuous modelling of the material flow and which therefore ca n handle arbitrary transfer and process batches for each operation. Th e progressive figure-based system described in this paper performs a t ime-phased loading to infinite capacity, separately for each product, and supports capacity planning based on Input/Output Control. This pla nning step is based on planned deliveries, but in many situations also on a detailed schedule for the first manufacturing step (raw parts ma nufacturing with large lot sizes). So we also consider the integration of detailed schedules into the progressive figure system. In this pap er we describe the system in mathematical terms and also present an ex ample. Furthermore, the basic ideas concerning the design process of t he system, namely the reasons why this concept was chosen for the plan ning problem in question, are presented along with perspectives for fu ture developments. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.