Agile production planning and control with advance notification to change schedule

Abstract

An agile production planning and control system (APPCS) is proposed that allows the agile rescheduling upon unexpected events. It executes schedule-based planning in the sense that scheduling is tightly connected with net-requirements planning and capacity requirements planning. APPCS does precise scheduling with so-called advanced planning system for the set of demands that are accepted in the planning cycle. It produces a feasible production plan, using production data. After releasing the production or purchase orders, notification to change the schedule may arrive from suppliers or customers in advance of due date. Based on the notification, APPCS reschedules in accordance with the then situation. Safety lead time in purchase orders and safety stock in raw material are used in APPCS to absorb the effects caused by sudden changes. As an example of implementation, it is applied to a fictitious but typical factory with a variety of products. The simulation result shows that planning with notification is effective, and that notification has the similar effect with safety lead time.

Acknowledgement

This research was partially supported by the Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture of Japan, Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C) 13630132, and by the University of Tsukuba, Special Research Grant (S). The authors are grateful to SAP Japan™ and FrontStep Japan™ (formerly SIMIX Japan) for support and help. Finally, they thank anonymous reviewers for valuable comments that improved the structure and presentation of the paper.