Delft University of Technology
Faculty Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering Transport Technology / Logistic Engineering
F.J. Stoop Logistieke besturing en automatisering semi-procesindustrie.
Masters thesis, Report 93.3.LT.4022, Transport Technology, Logistic Engineering.
Companies in the batch industry have a production process with a processing part (mixing for example) and discrete part (packing for example). These companies have a number of specific characteristics. At the moment a lot of software packages are available for production planning & control. These packages are mostly based on the MRP I/II principles. A few packages are specially designed for the batch industry and are only recently available. On the other hand some MRP-packages are specially adjusted for the batch industry. The question is which of those packages are suitable for the batch industry.
The most important characteristics of the batch industry are: the product structure is often divergent;
the used product structure can depend of the quantity, price, supplier of the ingredients and the resources that are used. In many situations alternates can be chosen in the product structure;
the equipment is expensive, high utilization of the equipment is necessary; the equipment can have set up times depending on the production sequence; traceability of the batches is sometimes required;
the products are often limited tenable.
These characteristics mainly have consequences for the detail planning. The most specific requirements on software packages for production planning are originated from detail planning. The importance of the different characteristics depends on the situation. The functional requirements on a software package are different for each situation. The suitability of a certain package for a certain company in the batch industry depends on the importance of each characteristic.
Most packages have all functions required for traceability. Large differences exist between the packages in the functions to handle divergent product structures. Traditional MRP-packages cannot handle this adequately because they have a product structure using a hierarchic tree structure. Some new packages work with a product structure in the form of a network.
There are large differences in functionality of the packages with regard to limited tenable products. In situations of limited tenable products or equipment with sequence dependent setup times the choice between packages is limited.
Most packages offer a limited functionality for capacity planning. They can only plan against infinite capacity. Recently there are a few packages specially developed for detail planning against finite capacity. These packages use Gantt Charts to plan resources. These packages can work in combination with other packages for production planning.
Reports on Logistic Engineering (in Dutch)
