| This paper demonstrates the benefits of using advanced planning and scheduling techniques and anticipatory scheduling for an engine Repair and Overhaul job shop environment that is characterized by high levels of uncertainty in job routings and work centre durations. The labour, machines and work centres of an aerospace engine repair and overhaul business unit are modelled. Job Routing and person-hour distributions of historical jobs are then analyzed to model various typical job routings and durations. These typical jobs are then scheduled through the shop using advanced planning and scheduling software for an 8 month period of time. By comparing the modelled results against actual production results, this work shows that despite the uncertainty, anticipatory scheduling can effectively forecast bottlenecks, allowing management action that can reduce job makespan by up to 46%, virtually eliminate late jobs, and improve work centre labour efficiency by up to 5%, when compared with historical actual results. |
