Periodic production scheduling at a fastener manufacturer

This paper presents the application of periodic production scheduling at a metal-fastener manufacturing company. The problem was initially presented as a mandate to reduce finished goods inventory by 33%. Preliminary investigations, however, revealed that any effort to reduce finished goods inventory necessarily involved two major endeavors: (1) significant improvements to forecasting and (2) a periodic production scheduling system (PPS). The forecasting system provided the input to the PPS system. The PPS required initial procedures for sorting parts into families, which, as far as possible, shared the same setup patterns, engineering specifications, raw material requirements, etc. The PPS itself was developed on a spreadsheet, and the output from this package fed into an interactive PC package. In addition to graphic presentation of production scheduling, the PC software package also provided manpower implications of specific PPS plans for tooling and supervision during runs, on the basis of the periodic schedule. The paper concludes with lessons learned from attempts to finalize implementation.