Scheduling Scenarios—Exercises

Basic Data Setup

Overview of Constraint Based Scheduling Data

Purpose: The purpose of this exercise is to set up the basic data required for the Constraint Based Scheduling (CBS) exercises.

  1. If you have not done so already, set up your site so that it includes all the data required for performing CBS. Make sure that you use the site which you set up for the Scheduling and Rescheduling Shop Orders Using the Advanced Planning Board exercises.

General exercise for Overview of Constraint Based Scheduling Data

Required Data

Create Shop Orders to be Loaded to the Advanced Planning Board

Purpose: The purpose of this exercise is to show you the required data that is used in the exercises below.

Windows:
Shop Order

  1. Enter five shop orders in your CBS site to meet the following criteria. Replace XX with your initials.
Shop Order Number Part Number Need Date Quantity
XX-SO-A1 XX-250-G1 Two weeks + two working days from today 25
XX-SO-A2 XX-250-G1 Two weeks + three working days from today 27
XX-SO-A3 XX-250-G1 Two weeks + three working days from today 29
XX-SO-A4 XX-910-C-11 Two weeks + two working days from today 10
XX-SO-A5 XX-910-C-11 Two weeks + three working days from today 32

General exercise for Creating Shop Orders Manually

Main Exercise

Purpose: The purpose of this exercise is to demonstrate how to use scheduling scenarios in the Advanced Planning Board. The same features are also available in the Scheduling Client and Simulation Client.

Windows:
Advanced Planning Board

Using the All Shop Orders Scenario

  1. Launch the Advanced Planning Board for your site.
  2. In the Load Options tab of Load Shop Orders window, select the With a Need Date Between check box.
  3. In the Start Date field, enter tomorrow's date in MM/DD/YYYY format.
  4. In the End Date field, enter the date that falls after the finish date for XX-SO-A3. This is the shop order that is scheduled to finish last out of the five shop orders that you created earlier. This date range will, therefore, ensure that these five orders are loaded to the Advanced Planning Board.
  5. Select the For Part check box.
  6. In the Part No field, use the List of Values to select XX-250-G1 and XX-910-C-11.
  7. Click OK to load the shop orders which match the given criteria.
  8. To plot the orders belonging to the All Shop Orders scenario, click All Shop Orders in the Scheduling Scenario field. The orders are then placed in the object table area along with the Shop Orders object which represents all shop orders.
  9. Clear the object table area.
  10. In the Data Tree/Scenarios tab, click Pre-Defined Scenarios to see a list of the scenarios that are available. These include All Shop Orders and Tardy Shop Orders.
  11. Select the All Shop Orders object and drag it to the object table area of the Gantt Overview pane. You will see that this is an alternative way of plotting all the current shop orders.
  12. Notice that the Shop Orders object is selected and that statistics regarding the orders represented by this object are displayed in the Gantt Detail pane. The Schedule Performance Chart indicates that all the orders are in Unscheduled state.
  13. Select a single shop order in the object table area and notice that the content in the Gantt Detail pane changes to display information pertaining to the selected order alone.
  14. Select all five shop orders, right-click and then click Scheduling. Alternatively, you can select the Shop Orders object, right-click and then click Scheduling.
  15. In the Change Schedule window that appears, click As Late As Possible and then click OK. The orders are then scheduled and plotted in the Gantt Overview pane.
  16. Select the Shop Orders object to view the scheduling statistics in the Gantt Detail pane.
  17. In the Schedule Overview tab in the Gantt Detail pane, click Refresh Graph. The Schedule Performance Chart indicates that all the orders are scheduled to meet their need date (assuming there are no other resource constraints).
  18. Select XX-SO-A5 in the object table area, right-click and the click Unschedule. Click OK in the Change Schedule window that appears. The state of the order changes to Unscheduled.
  19. Select the Shop Orders object to view the scheduling statistics in the Gantt Detail pane.
  20. In the Schedule Overview tab in the Gantt Detail pane, click Refresh Graph. The Schedule Performance Chart indicates that one or more orders are unscheduled.
  21. You can use the Highlight feature to locate orders as well. To locate the unscheduled orders in the object table area, select the unscheduled slice of the pie chart, right-click and then click Highlight This. Notice that XX-SO-A5 is highlighted in the object table area in the Gantt Overview pane.
  22. Open the Load Shop Orders window and clear the With a Need Date Between and For Part check boxes.
  23. In the Load area, click All Shop Orders and then click OK to load all the shop orders for your site.
  24. Check the Schedule Performance Chart again. This time you will see all the orders represented. Confirm this by checking the values in the Detail Property Pane. Drag the splitter that is on the right side of the Gantt Detail pane towards the left if the Detail Property Pane is not visible.
  25. In the Schedule Performance tab, select the Need Date Between check box.
  26. In the Start Date and End Date fields, enter the same date range that you entered in steps 3 and 4.
  27. Click Refresh Graph to view the graphical representation of order earliness and/or tardiness for the five orders that you created for this exercise.
  28. Select the portion of the chart which represents unscheduled orders, right-click and then click Scheduling.
  29. In the Change Schedule window that appears, click As Late As Possible and the click OK.
  30. In the Schedule Overview tab, click Refresh Graph to view the changes after scheduling.

Using the Tardy Shop Orders Scenario

  1. Reset the five shop orders to the need dates and quantities given in the table above.
  2. Launch the Advanced Planning Board and load the five shop orders that you created for these exercises.
  3. In the Gantt Overview pane, click Plot Settings and open the Settings window.
  4. In the Plot Settings/General tab, select the Tardy Line and Planned Line check boxes in the Operations Show and Operation Structures areas. Click Close.
  5. Schedule the orders as late as possible.
  6. Select the Shop Orders object and the click Refresh Graph in the Schedule Overview tab. All the orders are shown in Scheduled state and none of them are tardy.
  7. Save the schedule changes to the database.
  8. In the Data Tree/Activities tab, select Resource Break, right-click and then click New Child.
  9. Create a new resource break with the following criteria.
    Name Need Date EPST Duration Rescheduled Operations Note Assigned Resource
    XXRB700 (replace XX with your initials) 3 weeks from now Today 21 days Maintain resource assignments Annual maintenance for MC 700 Resource belonging to work center XX700
  10. Schedule the resource break and compare the two pie charts in the Change Schedule dialog box. Notice that forty percent of the orders are tardy once the resource break is scheduled. This is because some of the orders cannot be processed while a required resource is under maintenance.
  11. Select the Shop Orders object to view the Schedule Overview tab in the Gantt Detail pane. In the Detail Property Pane, you can see that the forty percent of the pie is made up of two shop orders.
  12. Click the Show Tardy tab to see a list of the tardy orders in the Detail Property Pane of that tab.
  13. To study tardy orders independently plot the tardy order scenario by clicking Tardy Shop Orders in the Scheduling Scenario field.
  14. The tardiness of the orders is represented graphically in the Order Tardiness Distribution tab.
  15. Select one of the bars, right-click and then click Zoom In. The chart then represents only the selected bar and the time scale will be adjusted to a more suitable level.
  16. Right-click anywhere in the chart area (other than the bar) and then click Reset to restore the chart to its initial state. Similarly you can zoom into the other bar to obtain a more detailed view of it.
  17. Right-click on one of the bars in the chart and then click Show Object Detail in a New Tab. The order represented by the bar will be presented in a detailed manner in a new tab. If there was more than one order represented by the bar, all the orders will be presented in the new tab.
  18. Study the information presented in the new tab to analyze possible ways of overcoming the tardiness of the order. To close the tab, right-click on its name and then click Close This Object Detail Tab.
  19. Click the Tardy Work Center Resources tab to view the work center resources that are associated with the tardy orders.
  20. Expand the two work center resources in the tab. You can see that one of the resources has a resource break scheduled and that is a likely cause of tardiness. This is the resource break that you created earlier.
  21. Select the work center resource which has been assigned to the resource break and then open the Detail Property Pane to see the resource break in the Show Relations tab.
  22. Click Plot Settings and open the Settings window.
  23. In the Saved Plot Options list in the Settings/Plot Settings tab, make sure that This Gantt Chart is selected.
  24. In the Settings/Plot Settings/General tab, click Accumulated Capacity in the Work Center Resources area. Click Close.
  25. Press shift and move the mouse over the Gantt chart in the Tardy Work Center Resources tab. You can see that the resource for XX700 is not available for approximately three weeks.
  26. Double-click anywhere on the area depicting the schedule for the work center resources. The Accumulated Resource Capacity/Utilization Node window appears. Use this to study the capacity and utilization of work center resources at different points in time.
  27. Click the Tardy employees tab and verify that labor is not a cause for the tardiness. You can use the accumulate capacity tool tip plot setting for employees to verify this.
  28. Repeat the previous step in the Tardy Tool Instances and Tardy Material tabs.
  29. Once you have verified that the tardiness in this situation is cause only by the work center resource, click the Tardy Work Center Resources tab and select the resources.
  30. Right-click and then click Show Object Details in Separate Tabs. This will open new tabs with each resource plotted separately.
  31. Click the tab which contains the resource for XX700.
  32. Unschedule the resource break. In the Change Schedule dialog box that appears when unscheduling, select Unschedule selected released objects and click Reschedule other operations to utilize freed resource time.
  33. Notice that the tardiness ceases to exist once the resource break is unscheduled.
  34. Modify the duration of the resource break to one week and then schedule it.
  35. Notice that there is no tardiness after scheduling the resource break with the shorter duration.
  36. Save the schedule.

Creating User-Defined Scenarios

  1. Launch the Advanced Planning Board and load all the shop orders for your site.
  2. Assume you want to group the five shop orders that you created for this exercise in one scenario. In the Data Tree/Activities tab, expand the Shop Orders object.
  3. Select the five shop orders (XX-SO-A1 to XX-SO-A5) and drag them to the object table area of the Gantt Overview pane.
  4. Click Scheduling Scenarios and then click Save As New Scenario.
  5. In the New User Defined Scenario dialog box that appears, enter the name Orders for Exercise.
  6. Click OK. The name in the Scheduling Scenarios field changes to Orders for Exercise.
  7. Click the Data Tree/Scenarios tab and then expand the User-Defined Scenarios object. You can see that a new object has been created to represent the scenario that you created. You can load your scenario in the same way that you load the pre-defined scenarios.
  8. You can set up these five shop orders to be loaded whenever you launch the Advanced Planning Board. In the Tools menu, click Settings.
  9. In the Settings dialog box that appears, click the Scenarios tab and then click Saved Scenario. Select Orders for Exercise in the list that appears below this option.
  10. Close the Advanced Planning Board and launch it again. The orders belonging to the Orders for Exercise scheduling scenario will be plotted in the object table area of the Gantt Overview pane.
  11. In the Data Tree/Scenarios tab, double-click the Orders for Exercise node. In the dialog box that appears, notice that the Default plot setting is assigned to the Orders for Exercise scheduling scenario. Close the dialog box.
  12. In the Gantt Overview pane of the Gantt Chart window, click Plot Settings. Click Plot Settings in the menu that appears to open the Settings dialog box and view the plot settings that are currently in use.
  13. In the Show area of the Settings/Plot Settings/General tab, select the Precedence Line check box.
  14. Click New. In the Creating User Defined Plot Setting dialog box that appears, enter the name Plot Settings for Orders for Exercise Scenario. Click OK and then close the Settings dialog box.
  15. In the Data Tree/Scenarios tab, double-click the Orders for Exercise node again.
  16. In the Assigned Plot Setting list in the dialog box that appears, select Plot Settings for Orders for Exercise Scenario. This assigns the plot options that were saved under the given name to the Orders for Exercise scheduling scenario. Close the dialog box.