Apparatus and method for production planning
First Claim
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1. Apparatus for production planning in a manufacturing facility, comprising:
- means for generating a plurality of theoretical plans;
a constraint-based model for receiving one of said theoretical production plans, and applying at least one constraint thereto;
means for computing a cost function per addition to work in response to said theoretical production plan; and
heuristic means for searching for a feasible production plan among said plurality of theoretical plans, said feasible plan within said applied constraint and having the least computed cost function value per addition to work.
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Abstract
Apparatus and method for production planning in a manufacturing facility is provided. The apparatus and method generates a plurality of theoretical plans and a constraint-based model for receiving one of the theoretical production plans, and applying at least one constraint thereto. Further, a cost function is computed for the theoretical production plans. Then, the apparatus and method searches for a feasible production plan among the plurality of theoretical plans, where the feasible plan is the plan which does not violate the applied constraint and has the least computed cost function.
111 Citations
42 Claims
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1. Apparatus for production planning in a manufacturing facility, comprising:
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means for generating a plurality of theoretical plans; a constraint-based model for receiving one of said theoretical production plans, and applying at least one constraint thereto; means for computing a cost function per addition to work in response to said theoretical production plan; and heuristic means for searching for a feasible production plan among said plurality of theoretical plans, said feasible plan within said applied constraint and having the least computed cost function value per addition to work. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. Apparatus for production planning in a manufacturing facility, said facility manufactures quantities of at least one type of product to meet customer demand, said apparatus comprising:
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means for determining a production plan including the quantities and types of product; means for computing the capacity of said factory in order to produce said determined quantities and types of product; means for computing the maximum factory capacity; means for comparing said computed production capacity with said maximum factory capacity; means for computing the cost of producing said determined quantities and types of product per addition to work in response to said computed production capacity being less than or equal to said maximum factory capacity; and means for selecting a production plan that incurs the least cost per addition to work. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22)
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23. A computer-implemented method for production planning in a manufacturing facility, comprising the steps of:
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generating a plurality of theoretical plans; receiving one of said theoretical production plans, formulating a plurality of constraints in response to said received theoretical plan and applying said formulated constraint thereto; computing a cost function divided by the addition to work in response to said theoretical production plan; and searching for a feasible production plan among said plurality of theoretical plans, said feasible plan within said applied constraint and having the least computed cost function value per addition to work, wherein said searching utilizes a heuristic search method. - View Dependent Claims (24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33)
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34. A computer-implemented method for generating a production plan for a manufacturing facility, comprising the steps of:
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initializing said production plan; generating a plurality of proposals to modify said production plan; formulating at least one constraint; applying said constraints to said production plan as modified by each of said plurality of proposals; discarding any proposal which causes said production plan to contradict said constraints; computing the cost of implementing said production plan as modified by each of said remaining proposals; selecting a proposal which causes said production plan to have the least computed cost; repeating said above steps until no proposals remain after said discarding step; and providing the current production plan as a solution production plan. - View Dependent Claims (35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42)
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Specification