Optimal and Heuristic Scheduling for Mass Customization Furniture Production

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We propose to develop mathematical models and heuristic algorithms to schedule furniture production at Verso Furniture, Inc. Unlike standard manufacturing companies, the core of Verso is mass customization: the production of highly variable customized orders at mass production costs. Mass customization is achieved through highly configurable products (size, material, configuration) and highly flexible production processes. The challenge addressed by this research project is how to schedule the staff and production processes of the factory. As no two orders are the same, production efficiency stems from the dynamic grouping of orders at each production stage: intermediate products from different orders come together for one production step because, for example, they share a machine. However, the next step for each order may be completely different, necessitating another grouping. The task therefore is to schedule production, grouping and ungrouping of work-in-process, and the shifts and duties of staff, all while meeting order due dates, achieving high staff and machine utilization, reducing work-in-process inventory, and minimizing schedule complexity to lower errors and accidents in schedule execution.