Production scheduling on parallel machines: A case study

This case study reports the development and implementation process of a production planning system for a carbon products manufacturer. The model developed for the company provides an optimal production sequence by minimizing the setup costs. Initially, the optimal sequence obtained faced hurdles at the implementation stage due to: (i) lack of integration of information systems among different corporate units, and (ii) the insensitivity of the traditional productivity measurement standards which do not account for the costs of quality but over-emphasize the capacity utilization instead. Such hurdles were overcome by addressing performance measurement issues and information systems integration. The integration of information in a timely fashion turned out to be a major factor in successfully implementing the system.