Visualizing capacity and load in production planning

Production planning is difficult not just because of the intricate relationships between the myriads of parameters, but also the dynamic nature of changes in the decision making environment. Good visualization tools for production planning are rare. Production planning is not merely an optimization problem. The possibility of making incremental manual changes will allow the planner to be more responsive to the dynamic changes in businesses today. The paper reports on a study prompted by the production planning of metal ingot casting. To visualize the production capacity and the current load in production planning, we focused on the potential bottle-neck machines, namely, the melting furnace and the pre-heat oven. We developed models of these machines which capture their special characteristics relevant to planning. Using our models in the load graphs of these machines, we were able to visualize the loading situation and the available production capacity. The visual models facilitate direct manipulation by a human planner to interact with a production plan to make incremental changes, with the impact of the change verified automatically. Visualization with the interactive techniques will augment advanced planning systems to provide better versatility and enhance usability.