An advanced planning and control system for discrete manufacturing

The main results achieved in the ESPRIT project IMPACS (Integrated Manufacturing Planning And Control System) are presented. IMPACS covers the complete hierarchy of production planning and control. It requires integrated solutions and decision making. The premise of IMPACS is that no amount of sophisticated tools and techniques to automate and computerize production planning and control are really useful unless they are developed within an architecture context. This architecture is associated with a methodology which shows how to use the architecture to implement the IMPACS in a particular enterprise, taking into account its specific requirements. A computer tool set called CAGIM (Computer Aided General IMPACS method) is developed to support the use of the architecture and methodology. An overview of the IMPACS project, IMPACS architecture and methodology, as well as the CAGIM tool is given