Optimization of manufacturing resource planning

A method for optimizing resource allocation in a manufacture of a plurality of products of different types from a set of components by use of a plurality of resources in a plurality of manufacturing procedures to obtain an optimum production quantity for each of said product types, comprising steps of:

• within each of said procedures, establishing quantities of resources to be employed in respective ones of said procedures;
• providing an inventory of said resources, and placing each type of resource of the inventory in a separate location of a vector;
• arranging said products as variables in respective product columns of a matrix having rows and columns wherein individual ones of the rows are reserved for respective resources employed in the manufacture of the respective products, there being a plurality of product columns with a separate column for each product type;
• establishing a resource constraint for the set of resources of the respective resource rows by, in each of the resource rows, multiplying the product variable of each column by coefficients designating the amount of each resource to be employed in manufacture of the product, each of the resource rows corresponding to the location of an amount of resource type in the vector;
• via a plurality of production constraints for said products, constraining shipments of respective ones of said product types minus the quantity of each of the respective product types produced to be less than or equal to a quantity of each of the product types in inventory;
• placing said production constraints of said product types in respective ones of additional rows of the matrix with shipments being located in separate shipment columns of the matrix and said product types being located in the respective product columns, there being a separate row for each product type having a nonzero shipment, the quantities of the product types in inventory being entered at locations of said vector corresponding to the matrix row having the production constraints;
• via a plurality of demand constraints for said products, constraining shipments of respective ones of said product types to be less than or equal to a demand for the respective product types;
• placing said demand constraints of said products in separate additional rows of said matrix with shipments being located in respective ones of said shipment columns of the matrix, the demands for said product types being located in separate locations of said vector corresponding to the respective rows of the demand constraints;
• applying a linear programming optimization to said matrix and said vector in accordance with an objective function to obtain an optimum production quantity for each of said product types;
• and
• producing, via said plurality of manufacturing procedures, said optimum production quantity for each of said product types.

A method for material constrained production planning whereby a feasible allocation of material to demand for maximization of profit is determined to obtain an optimum production quantity for each of said product types, the material including components in a plurality of manufacturing procedures conducted in accordance with a manufacturing information system for said optimum production quantity, the method comprising steps of:

• providing demand data, bill-of-material data, inventory data, cost and revenue data;
• within each of said procedures, establishing quantities of components to be employed in respective ones of said procedures;
• providing an inventory of said components from said data, and placing each type of component of the inventory in a separate location of a vector;
• arranging said products as variables in respective product columns of a matrix having rows and columns wherein individual ones of the rows are reserved for respective components of the products, there being a plurality of product columns with a separate column for each product type;
• establishing a material constraint for the set of components of the respective component rows by, in each of the component rows, multiplying the product variable of each column by coefficients designating the amount of each component in the product, each of the component rows corresponding to the location of an amount of component type in the vector;
• via a plurality of production constraints for said products, constraining shipments of respective ones of said product types minus the quantity of each of the respective product types produced to be less than or equal to a quantity of each of the product types in inventory;
• placing said production constraints of said product types in respective ones of additional rows of the matrix with shipments being located in separate shipment columns of the matrix and said product types being located in the respective product columns, there being a separate row for each product type having a nonzero shipment, the quantities of the product types in inventory being entered at locations of said vector corresponding to the matrix row having the production constraints;
• via a plurality of demand constraints for said products, constraining shipments of respective ones of said product types to be less than or equal to a demand for the respective product types;
• placing said demand constraints of said products in separate additional rows of said matrix with shipments being located in respective ones of said shipment columns of the matrix, the demands for said product types being located in separate locations of said vector corresponding to the respective rows of the demand constraints;
• applying a linear programming optimization to said matrix and said vector in accordance with an objective function to obtain said optimum production quantity for each of said product types to maximize profit;
• providing a shipment schedule and a production schedule;
• and
• inserting the shipment schedule and the production schedule into said manufacturing information system for a manufacture of each of said product types in said optimum production quantity.

A method for material constrained production planning whereby a feasible allocation of material to demand for maximization of profit is determined to obtain an optimum production quantity for each of said product types, the material including components in a plurality of manufacturing procedures conducted in accordance with a manufacturing information system for said optimum production quantity, the method comprising steps of:

• providing demand data, bill-of-resource data, resource availability data, cost and revenue data;
• within each of said procedures, establishing quantities of components to be employed in respective ones of said procedures;
• providing an inventory of said components from said data, and placing each type of component of the inventory in a separate location of a vector;
• arranging said products as variables in respective product columns of a matrix having rows and columns wherein individual ones of the rows are reserved for respective components of the products, there being a plurality of product columns with a separate column for each product type;
• establishing a material constraint for the set of components of the respective component rows by, in each of the component rows, multiplying the product variable of each column by coefficients designating the amount of each component in the product, each of the component rows corresponding to the location of an amount of component type in the vector;
• via a plurality of production constraints for said products, constraining shipments of respective ones of said product types minus the quantity of each of the respective product types produced to be less than or equal to a quantity of each of the product types in inventory;
• placing said production constraints of said product types in respective ones of additional rows of the matrix with shipments being located in separate shipment columns of the matrix and said product types being located in the respective product columns, there being a separate row for each product type having a nonzero shipment, the quantities of the product types in inventory being entered at locations of said vector corresponding to the matrix row having the production constraints;
• via a plurality of demand constraints for said products, constraining shipments of respective ones of said product types to be less than or equal to a demand for the respective product types;
• placing said demand constraints of said products in separate additional rows of said matrix with shipments being located in respective ones of said shipment columns of the matrix, the demands for said product types being located in separate locations of said vector corresponding to the respective rows of the demand constraints;
• wherein said manufacture is accomplished with the use of a set of resources, each resource of said set of resources being available for a predetermined amount of time, the method further comprising
• establishing additional resource-constraint rows in said matrix and corresponding additional resource-constraint locations in said vector;
• for each of the products employing, in its manufacture, one of said resources, totaling the usage time for each product of said one resource, and setting forth a relationship in the matrix row of said one resource providing for said totaling of resource usage time, said totaling of resource usage time being less than or equal to a maximum amount of resource usage time set forth in the corresponding resource constraint location of said vector;
• applying a linear programming optimization to said matrix and said vector in accordance with an objective function to obtain said optimum production quantity for each of said product types to maximize profit;
• providing a shipment schedule and a production schedule;
• and
• inserting the shipment schedule and the production schedule into said manufacturing information system for a manufacture of each of said product types in said optimum production quantity.

A method for critical components constrained materials requirements planning whereby a specified set of critical raw materials are allocated to demands to obtain an optimum production quantity for each of said product types so as to maximize profit, and the resulting production plan is then analyzed to determine the requirements of all materials not in the specified set, the critical raw materials including components in a plurality of manufacturing procedures conducted in accordance with a manufacturing information system for said optimum production quantity, the method comprising steps of:

• extracting demand data, bill-of-material data, inventory data from a manufacturing information system;
• eliminating from each bill-of-materials all raw material part numbered units which are not in a predetermined set of critical parts, and all product part numbered units which do not use, either directly or on subassemblies, raw materials in the predetermined set of critical part, thereby to provide a reduced bill of materials;
• replacing inventory data for raw material part numbered units which are not on the predetermined critical parts list and which have demand by a total demand for respective ones of the part numbered items in each of a plurality of time periods;
• within each of said procedures, establishing quantities of components to be employed in respective ones of said procedures;
• providing an inventory of said components, and placing each type of component of the inventory in a separate location of a vector;
• arranging said products as variables in respective product columns of a matrix having rows and columns wherein individual ones of the rows are reserved for respective components of the products, there being a plurality of product columns with a separate column for each product type;
• establishing a material constraint for the set of components of the respective component rows by, in each of the component rows, multiplying the product variable of each column by coefficients designating the amount of each component in the product, each of the component rows corresponding to the location of an amount of component type in the vector;
• via a plurality of production constraints for said products, constraining shipments of respective ones of said product types minus the quantity of each of the respective product types produced to be less than or equal to a quantity of each of the product types in inventory;
• placing said production constraints of said product types in respective ones of additional rows of the matrix with shipments being located in separate shipment columns of the matrix and said product types being located in the respective product columns, there being a separate row for each product type having a nonzero shipment, the quantities of the product types in inventory being entered at locations of said vector corresponding to the matrix row having the production constraints;
• via a plurality of demand constraints for said products, constraining shipments of respective ones of said product types to be less than or equal to a demand for the respective product types;
• placing said demand constraints of said products in separate additional rows of said matrix with shipments being located in respective ones of said shipment columns of the matrix, the demands for said product types being located in separate locations of said vector corresponding to the respective rows of the demand constraints;
• and
• applying a linear programming optimization to said matrix and said vector in accordance with an objective function to obtain said optimum production quantity for each of said product types to maximize profit;
• providing a shipment schedule and a production schedule;
• and
• inserting the shipment schedule and the production schedule into said manufacturing information system for a manufacture of each of said product types in said optimum production quantity.