ISE Seminar Series - Thesis Defense

"Prediction of Job Completion Times and Optimal Overtime Allocation for Satisfying Production Due Dates"

Olivia Liu
Master of Science Candidate
Industrial and Systems Engineering

Date: Tuesday, October 31st, 2006
Time: 10:00am
Location: Room 09-2129 (Kate Gleason Engineering Building)

An important aspect contributing to the competitiveness and success of a manufacturer is efficient management for timely order delivery. After production orders are scheduled, there arises the need of a support tool to aid in the analysis of available information, and to support managerial decision making which ultimately aims at on-time delivery. One way in which companies can meet due-dates of orders that are in jeopardy of being late is to schedule overtime. This research presents a methodology that can be used to 1) predict the competion time of schedule jobs; and 2) optimize overtime allocation when delays are foreseen. Mathematical mixed-integer linear program models are developed to represent the above problems for a tandem production line with single machine work stages. Non-operational downtime occurrences are considered in the production horizons which can be varied by work stage. Buffer areas (queues) are also included in the production system. These MILP models are solved using commercial optimizer ILOG-OPL studio. Using VBA script with OPL, a friendly interface is built in MS Excel for ease ofuser manipulation. The interface can also be used to test production hypothetical "what if" questions. The models are verified using simulation. Runtime evaluation is also performed to determine capabilities and limitations of the models.

Thesis Committee:
Dr. Michael Kuhl (Advisor), Industrial and Systems Engineering
Dr. Moises Sudit, Industrial and Systems Engineering

Questions?
Contact Dr. Michael Kuhl at 475-2134 or mekeie@rit.edu