WISL Production Planning
Overview
Waterloo Information Systems Limited
33 Dupont Street East
Waterloo, Ontario
N2J 2G8
I. Introduction
The WISL Production Planning System provides for the automatic generation of the production schedule, allows for controlled substitutions in response to changing production circumstances and monitors actual production against corporate production forecasts.
II. SKU Maintenance
Several attributes must be added to the finished goods sku record to identify production related characteristics such as priority type(A,B,C), the required die configuration and the roll type.
III. Finished Goods Inventory
The initial stocking level must be added to the finished goods inventory record to control the level of inventory to be maintained before the peak distribution period. The finished goods inventory must be periodically transferred from the Distribution server to the Process Management server for reference in the production schedule modeling process.
IV. Production Line Profile
A file of records must be maintained for each production line that describes production factors such as output speed, sku production profile and availability.
V. Corporate Production Forecast File
A file of records must be maintained that describes the weekly production forecast that will be used to generate comparative reporting with actual production results.
VI. Production Schedule Modeling
The files identified above along with parameters specified at run time are input to a modeling process designed to generate an optimum production schedule for a specified period. It is anticipated that the model would be run with a variety of parameter settings in an effort to find the best schedule. Manual adjustment would also be possible to fine tune the schedule.
VII. Production Schedule Adjustments
This routine would be available to the production supervisors to suggest substitutions in the schedule when circumstances prevent production of the specified product. An audit trail would be generated to document the decision process.
VIII Reporting
In addition to various production schedule reports there would be reporting that tracks actual production against forecasts.
IX. Interfaces
In addition to files maintained specifically for Production Planning the modeling and adjustment processes interface with the finished goods inventory data base and the raw materials inventory data base.