Optimal and Heuristic Scheduling for Mass Customization Furniture Production

我们建议开发数学模型和启发式算法来调度Verso家具公司的家具生产。与标准制造公司不同，Verso的核心是大规模定制：以大规模生产成本生产高度可变的定制订单。大规模定制是通过高度可配置的产品(尺寸、材料、配置)和高度灵活的生产工艺实现的。这个研究项目所解决的挑战是如何安排工厂的员工和生产过程。由于没有两个订单是相同的，生产效率源于每个生产阶段的订单的动态分组：来自不同订单的中间产品聚集在一起进行一个生产步骤，例如，它们共享一台机器。但是，每个订单的下一步可能完全不同，需要另一个分组。因此，任务是计划生产、对在制品的分组和拆分以及工作人员的轮班和职责，同时满足订单到期日，实现高人员和机器利用率，减少在制品库存，并将计划复杂性降至最低，以减少计划执行中的错误和事故。

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.