This chapter covers the following topics:
This chapter introduces Oracle Manufacturing Scheduling and describes the constraint-based scheduling engine, the Scheduler Workbench, and the menus and toolbar associated with the workbench.
The Oracle Manufacturing Scheduling application is a Work in Process web-based shop floor scheduling solution. Oracle Manufacturing Scheduling consists of two major components:
Constraint-based scheduling engine
Scheduler Workbench
The constraint-based scheduling engine schedules jobs and operations based on user-predefined objectives, priorities, resources, and material constraints. You can reschedule single jobs and operations or the entire shop floor.
The Scheduler Workbench lets you graphically view and reschedule single jobs and operations based on constraints, such as resource or material shortages. It provides you with a visual display (Gantt chart) of jobs on the shop floor. You can interactively reschedule jobs, operations, and resources. You can manually control the rescheduling or let the system automatically optimize the schedule based on resource and material constraints. The Scheduler Workbench interfaces directly with Oracle Work in Process. See: Manufacturing Scheduling Workbench.
Oracle Enterprise Asset Management (eAM) utilizes the Oracle Manufacturing Scheduling application to schedule eAM work orders and operations. See: eAM Scheduling, Oracle Enterprise Asset management User's Guide, and Enabling eAM Scheduling, Oracle Enterprise Asset Management User's Guide.
Oracle Process Manufacturing (OPM) is also integrated with Oracle Manufacturing Scheduling. Processing batches can be scheduled to equipment to avoid resource and component constraints. A scheduling workbench is provided that is specific to Process Manufacturing environments.
The Manufacturing Scheduling product provides the following features:
Graphically view shop floor jobs, operations, and resources
User friendly drag and drop mechanism to reschedule jobs, operations, and resources
Fully integrated with Oracle Work in Process
Ability to select the primary objective of work in process scheduling
Ability to schedule jobs based on available resources and material
Ability to reschedule jobs due to resource and material shortages (machine breakdown, employee sickness, material availability)
Ability to maintain schedules
Adjustable bucket sizing that affects the Gantt chart and associated resource load versus capacity view
Simultaneous and alternate resources invoked during high demand or when a resource is unavailable
Ability to simulate capacity changes, or dragging and dropping to simulate load changes on the Scheduler Workbench
Modeling features for creating a prototype for scheduling
Minimum transfer quantities for operations to move a portion of some assemblies to a subsequent operation rather than waiting for the entire quantity to complete
Resource batching to use resources across multiple jobs simultaneously, preventing a resource from being under utilized
Ability to dispatch jobs to instances of machines
Ability to group and sequence jobs based on setup changeovers
View job related sales order and customer information on the workbench
Oracle Shop Floor Management enabled so you can schedule discrete jobs on the Scheduler Workbench created in lot based organizations
Integrated with Oracle Enterprise Asset Management for scheduling maintenance of assets
The constraint-based scheduling engine factors resource and material availability when scheduling and rescheduling jobs and operations.
The constraint-based scheduling engine lets you:
Schedule single discrete jobs and operations
Reschedule all jobs on the entire shop floor
When each discrete job is created and saved, you receive a request ID. When the request has completed, you can view the updated start and completion dates of your job and operations.
If you enter a start date, the system calculates a completion date when the constraint-based scheduling engine runs. If you want a different completion date than the calculated completion date to drive the scheduling of your job, specify that date in the Requested Due Date field on the Scheduling tab of the Discrete Jobs window.
If the constraint-based scheduling engine cannot meet your requested start date or calculated start date (if you specify a completion date the system calculates the start date) due to resource and/or material availability, it schedules the job in the first available time slot where resource and/or material are available. Planned material receipts are calculated.
If resources and material are not available within the current scheduling horizon, your job will be scheduled at the end of the scheduling horizon and you might receive an exception message in the Oracle Application request log. If a job requires two resource instances, but only one is available, the operation resource starts beyond the end of the scheduling horizon.
See: Creating and Scheduling a New Job.
When you reschedule all jobs, the constraint-based scheduling engine uses the requested due date and scheduling priority. The highest priority jobs are scheduled first. Jobs with the same priority are scheduled based on the earliest requested due date. Firm jobs and any associated operations are not rescheduled. If a job requires two resource instances, but only one is available, the operation resource starts beyond the end of the scheduling horizon.
See: Rescheduling All Jobs.
The Scheduler Workbench enables you view all jobs on the shop floor. You can interactively reschedule jobs, operations, and resources. The workbench comprises four panes:
Top left pane: Tree Hierarchy (default)
Top right pane: Gantt Chart (default)
Bottom left pane: Select Resource(s)
Bottom right pane: Resource Load Versus Capacity
The Scheduler Workbench defaults to the Tree Hierarchy and Gantt Chart panes. The Select Resource(s) and Resource Load Versus Capacity panes appear when you choose Show/Hide Resource Load on the toolbar. A Status bar, that appears at the bottom of the window, indicates the current scheduling mode of operation and also displays message.
This pane displays the contents of the workbench. There are three levels of information or branches in the hierarchy of the tree: job, operation, and resource. The Tree Hierarchy is dynamically created when you launch the workbench, which defaults to show only unreleased, released, and on hold jobs. You can update the display at any time by choosing Revert and Refresh on the toolbar. You can also choose the Filter button to display specific jobs in the Tree Hierarchy pane and corresponding Gantt Chart pane, used when issues such as machine breakdown, component shortage, or absent employees impact the schedule. See: Filtering Jobs.
You can expand a job and its operation(s) in the Tree Hierarchy pane to view the associated resources. Likewise, you can collapse an operation or job in the Tree Hierarchy.
To expand a job:
Point and click on the (+) symbol next to a job.
The job expands showing the respective operation(s). The symbol next to the selected job changes to (-); the symbol next to the operation is (+).
To expand an operation:
Point and click on the (+) symbol next to an operation.
The operation expands showing its associated resources(s). The symbol next to the selected operation changes to (-).
To collapse an operation:
Point and click on the (-) symbol next to an operation.
The operation collapses. The symbol next to the selected operation changes to (+).
To collapse a job:
Point and click on the (-) symbol next to a job.
The job collapses. The symbol next to the selected job changes to (+).
This pane consists of a timeline, that appears at the top, and a horizontal bar chart. The timeline represents a time axis (bucket) for the horizontal bar chart. The Gantt chart directly reflects the tree hierarchy. Besides displaying jobs, operations, and resources, it can also display the setup resources. The left side of a horizontal bar represents the start date; the right side of a horizontal bar represents the end date. The magenta vertical line represents today's date, which is located at the left edge of the Gantt Chart pane by default.
This pane lets you:
Manually reschedule jobs, operations, and resources, see: Manually Rescheduling Start and End Dates.
Automatically reschedule jobs and operations, resources are adjusted according to the newly realized requirements, see: Automatically Rescheduling Jobs and Operations.
View rescheduling activities in the Resource Load Versus Capacity pane by appropriately choosing Refresh Resource Load on the toolbar, both prior and after saving changes.
View property windows for jobs, operations or resources are available in the Gantt Chart pane. These windows contain information about dates, quantities, and descriptions of the scheduling data. See: Job Properties Window, Operation Properties Window, and Resource Properties Window.
View exception messages related to jobs and resources requiring attention. See: View All Exceptions Window.
You should change the timeline in the Gantt Chart pane to view at least one complete operation.
Right click on the timeline.
A drop-down menu appears which lets you increment the timeline in:
Months
Weeks
Days
Hours
30 Minutes
15 Minutes
Horizontal Sliding Bar - Lets you fine tune the bucket width.
The left-most position shows the minimum bucket width
The right-most position shows the maximum bucket width
Choose the appropriate increment to resize the buckets so that at least one complete operation is viewable.
This pane consists of resources and resource instances selected through the Select Resource(s) window. When you choose the Select Resource(s) button, the Select Resource(s) window appears. This window lets you select the available resources and resource instances to display in the Resource Load Versus Capacity pane.
This pane shows the Required resource load versus the Available resource capacity for the selected resource(s) and resource instance(s) that appear in the Select Resource(s) pane. This pane shares the same timeline as the Gantt Chart pane and reflects the rescheduling activity in the Gantt Chart. You can immediately see the resulting changes on resource loads before saving.
The Required resource load, Available resource capacity, and Overload resource capacity key indicators appear to the right of the graphic drop-down menu. The key indicators are:
Required: Number of units required by the resource for all jobs in that time bucket.
Available: The number of resource capacity units in that time bucket (all of which could already be assigned).
Overload: Number of resource units that are required but already committed.
The graphic drop-down menu provides the following choices:
Table: Shows in tabular form. The top number represents the Required resource load; the bottom number represents the Available resource capacity.
Continuous: Shows a continuous graph. Non-bucketed lines representing Required, Available, and Overload resources accurate to the minute.
Bar: Shows a bar graph. The number on the left represents the Required resource load; the number on the right represents the Available resource capacity.
When you select:
Table or Bar, the Required and Available key indicators appear
Continuous, the Required, Available, and Overload key indicators appear
When the Required resource load is greater than the resource capacity, the Required resource load number appears red.
After a job is completed, any open resource requirements for that job are excluded from the resource load calculations. This ensures that resource requirements are correct when scheduling resource capacity.
Note: Resource load includes all shop floor demand, not just demand displayed on the workbench.
The vertical and horizontal scroll bars let you display all the contents of a pane. You can resize a pane by dragging the vertical or horizontal border line to the desired position.
When the job/operation bar is dragged off of the window, the horizontal scrollbar will automatically scroll left or right.
The menus provide you with these choices:
The following icons on the toolbar reference the menu items of the same name:
Save and Refresh.
Revert and Refresh
Take Shop Floor Snapshot.
Automatic/Manual Scheduling
Show/Hide Resource Load
Refresh Resource Load
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