An approach for integration of process planning and scheduling

Process planning and scheduling are the two most important tasks in manufacturing. Traditionally, these tasks are performed separately and sequentially through process planning and scheduling departments. As functional integration is essential to realise the benefits of computer-integrated manufacturing, an approach for integration of process planning and scheduling has been introduced in this paper. The proposed approach can quickly integrate these two functions and be implemented in a company with existing process planning and scheduling departments. It consists of four main modules introduced in detail in this paper. They are process plan selection module, scheduling module, schedule analysis module and process plan modification module. The performance of the proposed integration methodology is accessed from mean tardiness and makespan viewpoints as well as compared with the hierarchical approach through case studies. It reveals that proposed integration approach performs better than hierarchical approach.