Machine Model

The machines present on the shop floor must be modeled to the scheduled.
  1. Use the Machine Numbers (tirou4162m000) session to add designations to machines on the shop floor. Only machines with designations can be added to machine capacity groups.
  2. You can define machine capacity groups in the Machine Capacity Groups (tirou4161m000) session. Each capacity group contains one or several parallel machines. If a machine capacity group is a potential bottleneck in production, you must select the Critical for Scheduler check box.
  3. Machines can be unavailable due to maintenance, breakdown or replacement. Planned and unplanned unavailability is defined in the Machine Time-out (tirou4165m000) session.

Plan Group

The plan group determines the boundaries of the scheduler. If the scheduler is enabled for a site, the plan group is mandatory for all work centers of the site.

Production orders within a site are interwoven, they are either part of the same supply chain, use the same materials, or the same machines.

Consequently, for a feasible production plan, all production orders for the site must be scheduled in one run.

It remains possible to also schedule a set of production orders independently.

Example: A site where plastic injection molding parts (plan group 1), metal injection molding parts (plan group 2) and metal machined parts (plan group 3) are produced and delivered directly to the customer, can be run separately for each plan group with different scheduler settings.

Bottleneck Machines

The scheduler considers the available capacity of the bottleneck machines.

To schedule the work on an actual machine, that machine must be modeled by the machine number.

A machine number is part of a machine capacity group that can be marked as critical for scheduler. If marked as critical, the machines in the group are possible bottlenecks whose availability is considered by the scheduler.

Machine Operations

The work on the actual machine is modeled as one or more machine operations. If a production order has operations for a machine capacity group, machine operations are created automatically. The operation quantity is divided over the machine operations. Initially the machine operations start at the same time the operation starts.

Machine Time-Outs

The unavailability of a machine due to maintenance, breakdown, or replacement must be modeled as a machine time-out for the machine number. Machine time-outs in combination with machine availability defined in the work center calendar define machine capacity used in scheduling.