A Real Time Web Integrated Scheduling Support System for a Multi Product Manufacturing Industry

This paper deals with the real time implementation of a web integrated scheduling support system for a multiproduct manufacturing industry. The industry manufactures a wide variety of products ranging from steam turbines, gas turbines to compressors. The product assembly is quite complex, in particular a typical bill of material (BOM) has more than 50 levels. It is obvious that scheduling of these parts on the available resources and out sourcing is a gigantic task. Currently the task of planning and scheduling is being carried out manually and it is consuming several planning months to come up with a workable rather than an optimal/nearoptimal solution. In this context, we have developed a computerized scheduling system that aids in computing the make span for complex job-shop. A priority based scheduling system was developed based on the priorities of the customer. The priority of the customer is fixed considering various factors like due dates, customer influence, and engineering design considerations. The system is developed in two phases. Phase – I involves the development of a stand-alone job-shop scheduling system with make-span minimization as the prime objective. Other objectives like minimizing the maximum lateness/tardiness were also explored. Phase – II involves making the system web enable, which allows the decision makers with the flexibility of distributed decision making.