A combinatory approach to order release and shop scheduling in discrete manufacturing environments

This paper presents a new approach for integrating materials requirements planning (MRP) and shop floor scheduling in discrete manufacturing environments. A dynamic finite capacity scheduling method interacts with a reverse MRP logic resulting in a production planning and control tool for simultaneous detailed scheduling and material planning. The proposed method, referred to as reverse MRP, overcomes a series of shortcomings related to the traditional MRP approach by considering capacity constrains, lead times fluctuations, lot sizing and priority control in a bucketless environment. Performance of the reverse MRP method, when studied through a set of simulation experiments in a typical textile industry, has been found to outperform the standard MRP system in terms of a number of scheduling and inventory performance indicators