ABSTRACT
The process flow industry comprises about half of manufacturers worldwide, with the proportions much higher in Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. This industry has always been a challenge and a poor fit for traditional Material Requirements Planning (MRP) systems. Process industries are typically highly automated plants with a large capital investment. Examples of process industries include food processors, refining, pulp and paper mills, beverage, primary metals mills, and plastics and chemical manufacturers. To realize the best return on investment and the lowest product costs, these plants generally run 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The changeover of the line from one product to another is typically quite expensive. The whole plant is usually down during the changeover. The entire production workforce is idle and the expensive capital assets are not producing revenue, but the costs continue. For this reason, the main focus for any enterprise planning system in process industry is effective capacity management, including product sequencing and optimization of orders through the plant. The two main tools are called process flow scheduling (PFS) and advanced planning and scheduling (APS).
