Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop a new approach called advanced overlapping production planning (AOPP) model which considers multi-site process selection, sequential constraints, and capacity constraints in a manufacturing supply chain environment (MSCE). AOPP model may determine the capacity plan and order margin allocation for each site and machines in an MSCE and provide the capacity information for a production planner to effectively adjust the production strategies (e.g. outsourcing, overtime, or adding a work shift) of overloading resources.

Design/methodology/approach – First, an AOPP model is presented to model the production scheduling problem in a supply chain with the objective of minimizing the fulfilling cycle time of each order and the overloads of each machine group. Second, a genetic algorithm (GA)-based approach for solving the AOPP model is developed. Finally, a heuristic adjustment approach is proposed for planners to adjust the production plan whenever there is an exception of production occurring.

Findings – The production schedule obtained from the GA-based AOPP approach retains order margins in each operation against other overlapping operations, and it satisfies the capacity constraints of each machine group in an MSCE and results in a better performance in process planning and production planning with finite capacity. In practice, the overloading problem can be solved by adding a work shift or working overtime. The GA-based AOPP model provides useful information for production planners to make such decisions.

Practical implications – Production planners need a more flexible production plan with order margins to compensate for the uncertainties which frequently occur in the supply and demand sides. This research develops a model to help planners manage the order margin of production planning in an MSCE and showing that order margins become a crucial factor for achieving effective production objective in terms of short OTD (or order cycle) time.

Originality/value – The overlapping production planning approach is a useful finite capacity planning approach for handling the capacity and order margin management in certain manufacturing environment (e.g. flow shop), but less on overcoming multi-site process selection, sequential constraints, and capacity constraints in an MSCE. In addition, the capacity plan and order margin allocation information for each site and facilities are very important for a planner to effectively adjust the production strategies (e.g. outsourcing, overtime, or adding a work shift) of overloading resources. This research addresses both issues.