Business Commons^™

Enhancing Manufacturing Planning And Control Systems Through Artificial Intelligence Techniques, Ronald S. Dattero, John J. Kanet, Edna M. White

John J. Kanet

Manufacturing planning and control systems are currently dominated by systems based upon Material Requirements Planning (MRP). MRP systems have a number of fundamental flaws. A potential alternative to MRP systems is suggested after research into the economic batch scheduling problem. Based on the ideas of economic batch scheduling, and enhanced through artificial intelligence techniques, an alternative approach to manufacturing planning and control is developed. A framework for future research on this alternative to MRP is presented.

Constraint Programming For Scheduling, John J. Kanet, Sanjay L. Ahire, Michael F. Gorman

John J. Kanet

Our goal is to introduce the constraint programming (CP) approach within the context of scheduling. We start with an introduction to CP and its distinct technical vocabulary. We then present and illustrate a general algorithm for solving a CP problem with a simple scheduling example.

Next, we review several published studies where CP has been used in scheduling problems so as to provide a feel for its applicability. We discuss the advantages of CP in modeling and solving certain types of scheduling problems. We then provide an illustration of the use of a commercial CP tool (OPL Studio) in modeling …