Development of an Autonomous Systems Development Tool (ASDT) for application within manufacturing operations-planning

This ASDT Project (Autoplan) is designed to remove the failings of existing operations planning systems in managing highly variable manufacturing environments. In such organisations the high frequency with which process and supply chain disruptions occur and changes in product design and customer demands happen, form major barriers to increasing the competitiveness and maintaining the high rate of growth.

Finite Capacity Resource (FCR) planning involves deciding when customers’ jobs are sequenced through shop floor manufacturing areas. Such plans recognise that jobs need to be scheduled when all necessary equipment and labour resources are available and that these resources have limited capacity. Unfortunately FCR plans are subject to frequent and major disruptions caused by for example equipment breakdowns, delays in raw material delivery and changes to customers’ orders.

The result is that frequent manual planning revisions are undertaken that are slow and resource intensive. The autonomous planning processes to be developed will enable faster and more effective planning responses. They will be developed by applying the basic principles and characteristics of the regulatory control networks involved in the biological process of gene transcription. The application principles used have been developed and proof-of-concept tested as part of an EPSRC-funded Systems Biology feasibility project.

With 25,000+ planners in 9,000+ UK manufacturers the total time and resource loss represents a major opportunity to significantly improve UK productivity and competitiveness.