Capacity- driven production planning

• US 20030050817A1
• Filed: 09/12/2001
• Published: 03/13/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 09/12/2001
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Cargille, Brian D., Callioni, Gianpaolo, Johnson, M. Eric
• Application Number:
  US09/953,669
• Publication Number:
  US 20030050817A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/8
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06312 Adjustment or analysis of established resource schedule, e.g. resource or task levelling, or dynamic rescheduling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06315 Needs-based resource requirements planning or analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06375 Prediction of business process outcome or impact based on a proposed change
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0201 Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data

Abstract

Production planning systems and methods are described that enable production planners to see how capacity decisions affect total production costs and to understand the cost trade offs between excess capacity and inventory and, thereby, enable them to make appropriate manufacturing capacity level and inventory level decisions. In one aspect, a production planner may utilize the production planning systems and methods to plan inventory and capacity levels for one or more products produced on a manufacturing line. In addition to setting capacity and inventory levels, the production planner may use the production planning systems and methods to understand the impact of certain changes (e.g., reducing set-up time or down time, or moving products from one manufacturing line to another) on total production costs.

Claims

1. A production planning method, comprising:

planning inventory and capacity levels for one or more products produced by a manufacturing line based upon one or more production cost amounts computed based upon one or more received capacity attribute values characterizing the manufacturing line and needed to cover expected demand and expected demand uncertainty for the one or more products over an exposure period with a target service level.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the received capacity attribute values are selected from the group consisting of:

shift length;

number of shifts in a given unit of time;

mean time line is inoperable;

mean set-up time;

set-up time variability; and

production scheduling variability.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the inventory and capacity levels are planned based upon one or more received production attribute values characterizing the one or more products.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the production attributes received for each of the one or more products are selected from the group consisting of:

mean demand;

demand uncertainty;

line cycle time; and

average time between builds.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the inventory and capacity levels are planned based upon a total production cost amount needed to cover expected demand and expected demand uncertainty for all of the products over an exposure period with a target service level.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the inventory and capacity levels are planned based upon a respective production cost amount needed to cover expected demand and expected demand uncertainty for each of the products over an exposure period with a target service level.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein planning the inventory and capacity levels comprises:

receiving one or more capacity attribute values characterizing the manufacturing line;

receiving one or more production attribute values characterizing the one or more products;

based upon the received capacity attribute values and the received production attribute values, computing one or more production cost amounts needed to cover expected demand and expected demand uncertainty for the one or more products over an exposure period with a target service level; and

displaying the one or more computed production cost amounts.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

receiving one or more changes to the capacity attribute and production attribute values;

based upon the received changes, re-computing the one or more production cost amounts; and

displaying the one or more re-computed production cost amounts.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein planning the inventory and capacity levels comprises:

inputting into a production planning system one or more capacity attribute values characterizing the manufacturing line;

inputting into the production planning system one or more production attribute values characterizing the one or more products;

causing the production planning system to compute one or more production cost amounts needed to cover expected demand and expected demand uncertainty for the one or more products over an exposure period with a target service level based upon the inputted capacity attribute values and the inputted production attribute values, and to display the one or more computed production cost amounts; and

analyzing the one or more computed production cost amounts to determine whether the inputted capacity attribute and production attribute values are appropriate.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

(a) inputting into the production planning system one or more changes to the capacity attribute and production attribute values;

(b) causing the production planning system to re-compute the one or more production cost amounts based upon the received changes, and to display the one or more re-computed production cost amounts; and

(c) analyzing the one or more re-computed production cost amounts to determine whether the inputted capacity attribute and production attribute values are appropriate.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the one or more changes input into the production planning system modify a measure of excess capacity of the manufacturing line.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the measure of excess capacity corresponds to one or more measures of manufacturing line utilization.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the one or more changes correspond to modification of one or more of a set-up time capacity attribute value or a down time capacity attribute value.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein the one or more changes input into the production planning system correspond to modification of the number of products produced by the manufacturing line.

15. The method of claim 10, wherein the one or more changes input into the production planning system correspond to modification of one or more production attribute values for one or more of the products produced by the manufacturing line.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the one or more changes correspond to modification of one or more of a line cycle time production attribute value or a average time between builds production attribute value.

17. The method of claim 10, wherein the one or more changes input into the production planning system modify the target service level.

18. The method of claim 10, further comprising repeating steps (a)-(c) until the inputted capacity attribute and production attribute values are determined to be appropriate.

19. A production planning system, comprising a production planning engine configured to

plan inventory and capacity levels for one or more products produced by a manufacturing line based upon one or more production cost amounts computed based upon one or more received capacity attribute values characterizing the manufacturing line and needed to cover expected demand and expected demand uncertainty for the one or more products over an exposure period with a target service level.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the production planning engine is configured to:

receive one or more capacity attribute values characterizing the manufacturing line;

receive one or more production attribute values characterizing the one or more products; and

compute, based upon the received capacity attribute values and the received production attribute values, one or more production cost amounts needed to cover expected demand and expected demand uncertainty for the one or more products over an exposure period with a target service level.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein the production planning engine is configured to:

receive one or more changes to the capacity attribute and production attribute values; and

re-compute the one or more production cost amounts based upon the received changes.