Novel algorithms for improving manufacturing analytics

Kinaxis是一家提供软件工具的公司，使其客户能够创建，可视化，监控和执行其供应链。供应链可以被认为是一个流程图，表示生产过程中从原材料到成品的所有部分如何组合在一起。将建造房屋所涉及的各种组件作为一个运行的例子。供应链需要识别和编码一些组件之间的订单。例如，在盖屋顶之前，必须先打好基础。供应链还可以用于识别可以同时完成的组件。例如，一个人可以同时粉刷几个房间的墙壁。对于给定的产品，没有唯一的供应链。因此，需要创建一个可实现的供应链，并优化某些标准，如效率。这个项目要解决的具体问题直接关系到这两个标准，即可实现性和效率。在供应链中实现的一个主要障碍是循环的存在。如果一个供应链包含以下条件：a必须在B之前完成；B必须在C之前完成，C必须在a之前完成。这种情况是一个有向循环，并且会使供应链不可行的，因为a， B或C的组件都不能完成。Kinaxis的软件目前可以识别周期，但这个过程很慢，而且不能识别所有的周期。我们将探索各种方法来加快循环的识别，并列举供应链中存在的所有循环。效率可以通过多种方式实现。对于这个项目，目标将是通过确定可以同时完成或同时完成的所有组件来提高供应链的效率。目前，Kinaxis的软件无法识别这些组件。我们将探索各种技术，以便自动识别可以同时完成的组件族。

Kinaxis is a company that provides software tools to enable its customers to create, visualize, monitor and execute their supply chain. A supply chain can be thought of as a flow chart representing how all the pieces within a production process fit together from raw materials to finished product. Consider the various components involved in the building of a house as a running example. Supply chains need to identify and encode an ordering between some components. For example, before one can put the roof on a house, the foundation must be laid. Supply chains can be also be used to identify components that can be accomplished concurrently. For example, one can paint the walls in several rooms at the same time. There is no unique supply chain for a given product. As such, one needs to create a supply chain that is realizable and that optimizes certain criteria such as efficiency. The specific problems that will be addressed in this project are directly concerned with these two criteria, i.e. realizability and efficiency. One major barrier to realizability within a supply chain is the existence of cycles. If a supply chain contains the following condition: A must complete before B; B must complete before C and C must complete before A. Such a situation is a directed cycle and would render the supply chain infeasible since none of the components A, B or C can be completed. Kinaxis' software can currently identify cycles, but the process is slow and does not identify all cycles. We will explore various options to speed up the identification of cycles and enumerate all cycles that exist within a supply chain. Efficiency can be achieved in many ways. For this project, the goal will be to increase efficiency of a supply chain by identifying all components that can be completed concurrently or at the same time. Currently, Kinaxis' software cannot identify such components. We will explore various techniques in order to automate the identification of families of components that can be completed concurrently.