The Solution
Improving the current production planning and scheduling process could yield significant improvement in production output. Interdependencies between processes are difficult to identify, making it very difficult to optimize the process as a whole. A more automated approach to scheduling, that can take into account these interdependencies and apply optimization to key steps and resources in the production process, could yield significant gains in productivity.
As a first step, the company’s project team evaluated a number of process manufacturing planning and scheduling software packages. After extensive review, they determined that ILOG’s Plant PowerOps (PPO) was best suited to the company’s unique needs. At the end of the selection process, ILOG and the client tasked us with conducting a Proof of Concept (POC). The goals of the POC were to:
- Demonstrate that applying PPO to the company’s planning and scheduling process would yield significant gains in productivity resulting in quantifiable business value.
- Demonstrate that PPO could handle the particular complexities of the company’s planning and scheduling problem.
- Identify the implementation and integration requirements for the next phase of effort.
- Provide insight into how the company could expand the use of the tool to other areas of the company.
Working collaboratively with ILOG’s R&D team, ILOG’s sales team, and the client’s project team, the goals of the POC were met with a combination of deliverables, including:
- A Sample Application - A sample application was developed to demonstrate that PPO could meet the specific requirements of the company’s planning and scheduling problem. For this purpose, a subset of the manufacturing problem was selected to define the scope of the system for the POC. The selected subset was representative of the complexities and interdependencies that the system must ultimately deal with. The intent was to select a portion of the process that highlighted the most interesting aspects of the problem, while keeping the problem small enough to deal with within the time limitations of the POC.
- Demonstrations - Demonstrations were prepared and delivered to demonstrate specific aspects of planning and scheduling that were of interest to the company but that would not be addressed by the sample application.
- Integration and Implementation Plan - An integration and implementation plan was developed in order to understand the requirements and the effort involved.
- Cost/Benefit Analysis - A detailed cost/benefit analysis, with the consensus approval and buy-in of the company’s manufacturing organization, was prepared to justify the next phase of effort.
- Training - All client participants were trained to use the tool and to leverage it to improve plant performance.
Biotech Manufacturing - Planning and Scheduling Page 3 of 4