Production Planning And Scheduling

Abstract

In this chapter, we focus primarily on hierarchical production planning and scheduling at the plant level. The case studies and discussion in Chapter 2 considered hierarchical planning from the perspective of managing operations across the entire manufacturing and distribution network of a firm. This perspective included evaluating, in an integrated fashion, manufacturing costs, distribution costs and capacities in the decision-making process of planning and managing a network’s infrastructure and assets. Chapter 3 starts from the point where basic decisions about planning and utilizing the network have been developed based on an integrated manufacturing and distribution approach, and the firm’s attention now turns more towards production planning. For example, in this chapter, we will assume that in the case of a network consisting of multiple manufacturing and distribution facilities, the firm has already established planned supply or sourcing patterns (e.g., which plants supply which products to particular distribution centers and demand regions), as well as the basic mission and responsibility of each facility. Methodologies such as those presented in Chapter 2 will have assisted in reaching this point.