A software agents based manufacturing scheduling module for Advanced Planning and Scheduling (APS) is presented. The problem considered is scheduling of jobs with multiple operations, distinct operation processing times, arrival times, and due dates in a job shop environment. Sequence dependent setups are also considered. The additional constraints of material and resource availability are also taken into consideration. The scheduling is to be considered in integration with production planning. The production plans can be changed dynamically and the schedule is to be generated to reflect the appropriate changes. The design of a generic multi-agent framework which is domain independent along with algorithms that are used by the agents is also discussed. / Master of Science

Esta dissertação tem como finalidade analisar a implantação de sistemas APS em empresas sob a perspectiva de redes de inovação auto-organizadas. Considera-se que a implantação do sistema APS representa uma inovação organizacional para a área de planejamento e controle da produção da empresa adquirente do software, pois comparado aos sistemas de planejamento e controle da produção predecessores, supre deficiências referentes às limitações de capacidade da empresa, flexibilidade na geração de estratégias de produção, disponibilização de prazos de entrega mais curtos e maior apoio aos processos de decisão. Considera-se também que o processo de implantação pode ser analisado sob a perspectiva de uma rede auto-organizada, formada pela empresa adquirente, implantadora e desenvolvedora do software, o que permite identificar os nós (empresas), ligações (relacionamentos), posições (atividades das empresas), fluxos tangíveis (recursos físicos) e fluxos intangíveis (troca de conhecimento e informações). A metodologia de pesquisa utilizada compreende um estudo bibliográfico para o embasamento teórico da temática proposta e de sete estudos de caso para a coleta de dados em campo. A análise e discussão do cruzamento entre as evidências teóricas e práticas visa identificar e sistematizar elementos para disponibilizar um modelo de referência para a implantação de sistemas APS. O desenvolvimento do modelo de referência foi orientado pela metodologia Enterprise Knowledge Development (EKD), e o mesmo foi avaliado por profissionais de empresas implantadoras e pesquisadores acadêmicos, a fim de verificar sua consistência e identificar possíveis melhorias. / This dissertation aims to analyze the APS systems implementation in companies under the selforganizing innovation networks perspective. It is considered that the APS systems implementation represents an organizational innovation in the area of production planning and control of the software\'s acquiring company, because compared to the predecessors production planning and control systems, supplies deficiencies relating to capacity constraints of the company, flexibility in the generation of production strategies and greater support to decisionmaking. It is also considered that the implementation process can be analyzed under the perspective of a self-organized network formed by the acquirer, implanter and developer companies of the software, which allows us to identify the nodes (companies), links (relationships), positions (activities of companies), tangible flows (physical resources) and intangible flows (exchange of knowledge and information). The research methodology used comprises a bibliographical study to the theoretical background of the proposed theme and seven case studies to data collection in the field. The analysis and discussion of the intersection between theoretical and practical evidences aims to identify and systematize elements for provide a reference model for the APS systems implementation. The development of the reference model was guided by the Enterprise Knowledge Development (EKD) methodology, and the model was assessed by implementing companies professionals and academic researchers in order to check its consistency and identify possible improvements.

Esta dissertação tem como finalidade analisar a implantação de sistemas APS em empresas sob a perspectiva de redes de inovação auto-organizadas. Considera-se que a implantação do sistema APS representa uma inovação organizacional para a área de planejamento e controle da produção da empresa adquirente do software, pois comparado aos sistemas de planejamento e controle da produção predecessores, supre deficiências referentes às limitações de capacidade da empresa, flexibilidade na geração de estratégias de produção, disponibilização de prazos de entrega mais curtos e maior apoio aos processos de decisão. Considera-se também que o processo de implantação pode ser analisado sob a perspectiva de uma rede auto-organizada, formada pela empresa adquirente, implantadora e desenvolvedora do software, o que permite identificar os nós (empresas), ligações (relacionamentos), posições (atividades das empresas), fluxos tangíveis (recursos físicos) e fluxos intangíveis (troca de conhecimento e informações). A metodologia de pesquisa utilizada compreende um estudo bibliográfico para o embasamento teórico da temática proposta e de sete estudos de caso para a coleta de dados em campo. A análise e discussão do cruzamento entre as evidências teóricas e práticas visa identificar e sistematizar elementos para disponibilizar um modelo de referência para a implantação de sistemas APS. O desenvolvimento do modelo de referência foi orientado pela metodologia Enterprise Knowledge Development (EKD), e o mesmo foi avaliado por profissionais de empresas implantadoras e pesquisadores acadêmicos, a fim de verificar sua consistência e identificar possíveis melhorias. / This dissertation aims to analyze the APS systems implementation in companies under the selforganizing innovation networks perspective. It is considered that the APS systems implementation represents an organizational innovation in the area of production planning and control of the software\'s acquiring company, because compared to the predecessors production planning and control systems, supplies deficiencies relating to capacity constraints of the company, flexibility in the generation of production strategies and greater support to decisionmaking. It is also considered that the implementation process can be analyzed under the perspective of a self-organized network formed by the acquirer, implanter and developer companies of the software, which allows us to identify the nodes (companies), links (relationships), positions (activities of companies), tangible flows (physical resources) and intangible flows (exchange of knowledge and information). The research methodology used comprises a bibliographical study to the theoretical background of the proposed theme and seven case studies to data collection in the field. The analysis and discussion of the intersection between theoretical and practical evidences aims to identify and systematize elements for provide a reference model for the APS systems implementation. The development of the reference model was guided by the Enterprise Knowledge Development (EKD) methodology, and the model was assessed by implementing companies professionals and academic researchers in order to check its consistency and identify possible improvements.

Semiconduct industry is facing the various supply chain uncertainty problems at present. MRP/ERP (Material Resource Planning/Enterprise Resource Planning) solution can¡¦t satidfy the requirement of production planning and scheduling for the enterprise. In this research¡Aon APS (Advanced Planning & Scheduling) system was proposed for an IC (Intergrated Circuit) substrate industry to replace manual planning process and to solve the resource constraint problems of production. Following topics was addressed :

The planning and scheduling requirement of industry can not be satisfied by traditional scheduling systems. Companies need to put extra human resource to fix the result made by these systems. The main reason is an improper assumption of infinite capacity adopted by these scheduling systems. In order to improve the scheduling result, this research refers plastic injection industry¡¦s characters to implement a decision support system. The decision support system integrates Forward Finite Loading and Constraint Directed into our algorithm in order to minimize the increase in total cost, and raise the capacity balance between machines .According to the result of the practical research, we can prove this decision support system is more effective and efficiency than the traditional scheduling method.

O ambiente competitivo no qual as empresas estão inseridas é caracterizado por mudanças frequentes na demanda de seus produtos e por uma necessidade em reduzir custos. Para obter sucesso frente à concorrência, se faz necessário alcançar resultados através da melhoria do processo produtivo, oferecendo respostas mais rápidas a variações na demanda e com uma utilização adequada dos recursos produtivos. Neste contexto, a utilização de softwares Advanced Planning and Scheduling com regra personalizada de programação possibilita melhoria no planejamento e programação da empresa no sentido dos objetivos citados. A partir disso, este trabalho propõe uma sistemática de desenvolvimento e implantação de regras de programação personalizadas. Após, é apresentada aplicação de um caso prático no qual foram detalhadas todas as etapas propostas na sistemática, desde o entendimento das necessidades da empresa até a avaliação dos resultados obtidos. / The competitive environment in which firms operate is characterized by frequent changes in product demand and a necessity to reduce costs. To succeed against the competition, it is necessary to gain competitive advantage by improving the production process, providing faster responses to changes in demand and proper use of productive resources. In this context, the use of Advanced Planning and Scheduling software with custom programming rule allows improved planning and programming company towards the objectives mentioned. This study proposes a systematic development and deployment of custom programming rules, next it is presented a case study which detail the stages proposed in the systematic, from the understanding of the business requirement until the evaluation of results.

O ambiente competitivo no qual as empresas estão inseridas é caracterizado por mudanças frequentes na demanda de seus produtos e por uma necessidade em reduzir custos. Para obter sucesso frente à concorrência, se faz necessário alcançar resultados através da melhoria do processo produtivo, oferecendo respostas mais rápidas a variações na demanda e com uma utilização adequada dos recursos produtivos. Neste contexto, a utilização de softwares Advanced Planning and Scheduling com regra personalizada de programação possibilita melhoria no planejamento e programação da empresa no sentido dos objetivos citados. A partir disso, este trabalho propõe uma sistemática de desenvolvimento e implantação de regras de programação personalizadas. Após, é apresentada aplicação de um caso prático no qual foram detalhadas todas as etapas propostas na sistemática, desde o entendimento das necessidades da empresa até a avaliação dos resultados obtidos. / The competitive environment in which firms operate is characterized by frequent changes in product demand and a necessity to reduce costs. To succeed against the competition, it is necessary to gain competitive advantage by improving the production process, providing faster responses to changes in demand and proper use of productive resources. In this context, the use of Advanced Planning and Scheduling software with custom programming rule allows improved planning and programming company towards the objectives mentioned. This study proposes a systematic development and deployment of custom programming rules, next it is presented a case study which detail the stages proposed in the systematic, from the understanding of the business requirement until the evaluation of results.

O ambiente competitivo no qual as empresas estão inseridas é caracterizado por mudanças frequentes na demanda de seus produtos e por uma necessidade em reduzir custos. Para obter sucesso frente à concorrência, se faz necessário alcançar resultados através da melhoria do processo produtivo, oferecendo respostas mais rápidas a variações na demanda e com uma utilização adequada dos recursos produtivos. Neste contexto, a utilização de softwares Advanced Planning and Scheduling com regra personalizada de programação possibilita melhoria no planejamento e programação da empresa no sentido dos objetivos citados. A partir disso, este trabalho propõe uma sistemática de desenvolvimento e implantação de regras de programação personalizadas. Após, é apresentada aplicação de um caso prático no qual foram detalhadas todas as etapas propostas na sistemática, desde o entendimento das necessidades da empresa até a avaliação dos resultados obtidos. / The competitive environment in which firms operate is characterized by frequent changes in product demand and a necessity to reduce costs. To succeed against the competition, it is necessary to gain competitive advantage by improving the production process, providing faster responses to changes in demand and proper use of productive resources. In this context, the use of Advanced Planning and Scheduling software with custom programming rule allows improved planning and programming company towards the objectives mentioned. This study proposes a systematic development and deployment of custom programming rules, next it is presented a case study which detail the stages proposed in the systematic, from the understanding of the business requirement until the evaluation of results.

One of the major planning problems faced by medium and large manufacturing enterprises is the distribution of production over various (production) facilities. The need for cross-facility capacity management is most evident in the high-tech industries having capital-intensive equipment and short technology life cycle. There have been solutions proposed in the literature that are based on the lagragian decomposition method which separate the overall multiple product problem into a number of single product problems. We believe that multi-agent systems, given their distributed problem solving approach can be used to solve this problem, in its entirety, more effectively. According to other researchers who have worked in this field, auction theoretic mechanisms are a good way to solve complex production planning problems. This research study develops a multi-agent system and negotiation protocol based on combinatorial auction framework to solve the given multi-facility planning problem. The output of this research is a software library, which can be used as a multi-agent system model of the multi-product, multi-facility capacity allocation problem. The negotiation protocol for the agents is based on an iterative combinatorial auction framework which can be used for making allocation decisions in this environment in real-time. A simulator based on this library is created to validate the multi-agent model as well as the auction theoretic framework for different scenarios in the problem domain. The planning software library is created using open source standards so that it can be seamlessly integrated with scheduling library being developed as a part of the Advanced Planning and Scheduling (APS) system project or any other software suite which might require this functionality. The research contribution of this study is in terms of a new multi-agent architecture for an Advanced Planning and Control (APS) system as well as a novel iterative combinatorial auction mechanism which can be used as an agent negotiation protocol within this architecture. The theoretical concepts introduced by this research are implemented in the MultiPlanner production planning tool which can be used for generating master production plans for manufacturing enterprises. The validation process carried out on both the iterative combinatorial framework and the agent-based production planning methodology demonstrate that the proposed solution strategies can be used for integrated decision making in the multi-product, multi-facility production planning domain. Also, the software tool developed as part of this research is a robust, platform independent tool which can be used by manufacturing enterprises to make relevant production planning decisions. / Master of Science

This diploma thesis is focused on process of production planning and scheduling in company Meopta – optics, Ltd., in connection with the possibility of its optimization. The basis of the thesis is analysis of the current status of planning and production management, evaluation of theoretical approaches dealing with issues of production planning and solution proposal optimizing the existing processes. The diploma thesis was elaborated with the support of Head of operative planning in Meopta - Optics Ltd.