Finite Capacity Scheduling and Simulation Systems.

摘要

U.S. manufacturing is facing global competition and not always winning. The potential erosion of the manufacturing base can have serious implications to the defense community. Manufacturing is a very complex activity and simulation has often been attempted to understand the various interactions. The state of the art in manufacturing simulation and systems is still evolving. Material requirements planning (MRP) has proven to be a significant step in achieving some degree of formality and control in manufacturing. However, it has not provided the total answer to the needs of manufacturing, particularly on the shop floor. Thus, some U.S. producers have turned to Japanese concepts such as Just-In-Time (JIT), and the scheduling techniques embodied in Kanban. There is, however, a relatively new approach evolving termed 'bottleneck optimization' which focuses on gaining control of the constrained resources that limit plant output. A number of systems based on this approach are emerging. One system, named 'OPT', appears to be leading in the number of industrial applications.