An integrated approach to solving the master aggregate scheduling problem

Master scheduling is concerned with synchronizing production activities with product demand, while also coordinating the use of different resources. It will thus be a key schedule in any control system intended for application in an integrated manufacturing environment. This paper combines earlier methodologies, in master scheduling and aggregate planning, to develop a master aggregate schedule (MA-schedule) model, which is better equipped to meet the needs of modern manufacturing facilities. The MA-schedule aggregates capacity, time, and products; models routing and capacity flexibility; considers the availability of material transporters; and has a multi-criteria objective function. The schedule is formulated as a large-scale mixed integer program. Experimental results with some test problems are reported, and the impact of the new features is studied.