Operations research techniques in manufacturing planning and control systems

This paper investigates the possible uses for operations research (OR) models and techniques in manufacturing planning and control (MPC) systems. We discuss various MPC problems where OR can be applied and the potential inclusion of such models in computer-aided MPC systems. It is found that even though the use of OR techniques in current standard MPC packages is rather restricted, there is a potential for utilizing more OR techniques in computer-aided MPC systems, at least in theory. In practice, OR-related techniques are more often developed as stand-alone systems for decision support as a complement to the MPC system. In this paper, specific OR techniques are discussed for specific MPC problems in terms of applicability and the appropriate type of software solution; none at all, stand-alone system or integrated part of the MPC system.