Production scheduling process design at Fine Blanking

Abstract

Production scheduling, as described by the encyclopaedia of Britannica are referred to as the attempt to balance the demand for products with the available inputs and plant capacity as well as the scheduling of inbound materials, components and resources to fit into the production process. The production process itself is scheduled to fulfil existing and forecasted orders with the key goal aimed at operating in the most efficient manner while satisfying the timing of customer requirements. Production processes can easily be over-emphasised at the expense of customer satisfaction or customer satisfaction at the expense of efficiency. At Tri-Axis Engineering, one of the companies within the Fine Blanking group, efficiency and optimal resource utilization is compromised due to over-emphasised customer satisfaction. Despite the fact that customer satisfaction is over-emphasised, customer satisfaction levels are still low due to late product delivery. In order to determine the cause of late product delivery, current production scheduling methods were examined. It was found that little to no effort was made regarding production scheduling, as the importance of production scheduling was not yet noticed. The project aims at creating an awareness to show the influence and benefits gained from efficient production scheduling regarding costs, the decrease in work-in progress and the reduction of non-value adding activities. Different engineering techniques were examined and applied to illustrate the difference between more and less effective scheduling solutions. Several start-off points required for effective scheduling were studied and introduced to the management team. In the end the objective of the project is to encourage management at Tri- Axis engineering to follow the suggested production scheduling process design.