INTEGRATING THE MASTER PRODUCTION SCHEDULING AND BILLS OF MATERIAL EXPLOSION FUNCTIONS IN MATERIAL REQUIREMENTS PLANNING SYSTEM

This study focuses on the problems that arise from capacity restrictions in a manufacturing environment which is managed by a Material Requirements Planning (MRP) System. As the MRP system releases action notices to the manufacturing system for implementation, the recommended production schedules do not consider capacity availability. Therefore, the manufacturing system may not be able to accommodate the production schedules generated by the MRP system.;In the context of this research, nine scheduling strategies were evaluated according to several performance criteria to assess their impact on the workload placed on the manufacturing facility. The methodology used was digital simulation where a closed-loop manufacturing system is represented by a FORTRAN model. The model was used to assess the planned performances of master production scheduling and MRP implementation rationales.;The production scheduling strategies under consideration were evaluated under different operating characteristics represented by variability of end item demand schedules and cost structures of manufactured and purchased items. The experimental factors represented a full factorial design and were analyzed by multivariate analysis of variance and analysis of variance procedures.;Results of the experimentation suggest that the major performance differences between scheduling strategies result from the choice of a master production scheduling rationale. Although the MRP implementation rationales resulted in improved workload profiles, their impact is not as significant as the impact of master production scheduling approaches. Major improvements in the form of smaller work overloads and reduced workload variability at work stations were achieved by smooth master production schedules and at the expense of increased inventory costs.