Manufacturing Scheduling and Optimization (MSO)

Manufacturing Scheduling and Optimization (MSO) solution optimize the use of manufacturing resource constraints and in turn creates finite schedule for the shop floor to execute production activities. The primary users of MSO are manufacturing planners, supervisors and machine operators. Production schedule decides the overall time sequence of manufacturing execution. Therefore, the most optimize schedule will result in the achieving the business objectives of a manufacturing organization

MSO solution uses Planning Scheduling and Optimization (PSO) solution as the scheduling and optimization engine. MSO create optimized schedule by scheduling activities in the most appropriate time interval in the timeline while giving due consideration to the scheduling cost of the resource and other scheduling parameters, namely, characteristic constraints, resource share capabilities of machine and labor resources, shop order scheduling information and priorities and calendars.

Optimization takes time. The planners can decide the level of maximum optimization they expect from the schedule and the maximum time the MSO solution should spend searching for a solution. This planner defined optimization goal is called scheduling quality. The planner defined maximum wait time is called waiting time. MSO solution starts working on finding a optimized scheduling solution no sooner it gets a scheduling request from the planner. The scheduling algorithms in MSO will work on optimize solution and no sooner it reaches a solution, which may not be the most optimized will check if the waiting time target or quality target is exceeded. If yes , then MSO will return that as a optimize plan for the user. Based on the scheduling mode the planner is using for the site the optimization process may continue or stop. In the case of “Static” scheduling mode in MSO it will stop looking for more optimized solution while in MSO “Automatic” scheduling mode, it will continue to look for more optimized solution until it finds the best solution for the Scheduling problem. After the Scheduling completion achieved plan quality will be shown in 'Shop Order Scheduling Analysis' window together with overall analysis.

Settings Affecting Manufacturing Scheduling and Optimization

MSO creates finite schedule as per the manufacturing and shop order scheduling data. Therefore, it is essential to set the data that affect the shop order schedule before using MSO.

• Need Date on Shop Order page: MSO consider this input as first of the two main time constraint to a shop order. Scheduling after this date means, shop order do not meet the external data requirement and hence considered as "Tardy". One objective of MSO is to create a finite schedule where minimum number of shop orders becomes tardy.
• Earliest Start Date on Shop Order page: MSO consider this input as second of the two main time constraint to a shop order. This is a hard time constraint and MSO will not schedule a shop order before this date. For Shop Orders with passed Earliest Start Date MSO will consider the Current time as the Earliest start time.
• Scheduling Direction on Shop Order page: MSO will consider this input to detemine what is the expected best time bucket to schedule this shop order and its operations relative to its Earliest Start Date and Need Date. Shop Order with scheduling direction " Backward:" is expected to schedule just before its Need Date while a shop order with "Forward" is expected to schedule just after its Earliest start time.
• Priority Category on Shop Order/Settings and Options tab: MSO uses this input as the user defined priority for a shop order over the others. If two identical shop orders are competing with each other for a same time bucket, the MSO will give priority to the shop order with highest priority category. MSO Priority Index defined in Shop Order Priorities will be used to decide the Priority of the Supply.

Scheduling Configuration Modes

• Static: The planner has to execute finite scheduling manually to create a finite shop order schedule if the site is set up as a MSO Static scheduling site. Selective scheduling is one of the key difference in Static mode over Automatic mode. All optimization related contraints are also selectively executable in this mode.
• Automatic : MSO will schedule the shop order operations in the site automatically and will maintain a finite schedule by continueously re-scheduling and re-adjusting the shop order operations based on the changes happening in the Demand creation stage and the Demand fulfillment stage in the Shop floor

Start Finite Scheduling with MSO