Manufacturing Lot Scheduling Using Previous Schedule Filtering
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Solution Overview
Problem
Large manufacturing scheduling problems involving numerous stations, tasks, and lots are computationally intensive and often impossible to solve directly due to their size, requiring significant time and resources.
Innovation Solution
A method and system that utilize a previous schedule to filter and create a smaller, more manageable pool of lots, reducing computational burden by leveraging information from past schedules to generate new schedules efficiently.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Quantity of substance
If traditional scheduling systems attempt to solve large-scale manufacturing scheduling problems directly, then comprehensive scheduling coverage is achieved, but computational time and resource consumption increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the large set of lots into two distinct groups: a first group of lots scheduled using traditional scheduling systems, and a second group of lots scheduled using a simplified scheduling approach. This segmentation allows the system to handle different subsets of lots differently, reducing overall computational burden while maintaining comprehensive scheduling coverage across all lots.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies partial action by using traditional scheduling methods for only a portion of the lots (the first group) while using a simplified approach for the remaining lots (the second group). This partial application of the computationally intensive traditional method reduces total computation time while still achieving comprehensive scheduling for all lots through the combination of both approaches.
2Quantity of substance
If traditional scheduling systems process all lots comprehensively, then complete scheduling coverage is achieved, but computational resources consumed become excessive
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the lot population into two segments: a first group processed by traditional scheduling systems and a second group processed by a simplified scheduling method. This segmentation enables the system to allocate computational resources more efficiently, using intensive traditional scheduling only where necessary while applying lighter computational methods to other lots, thereby reducing overall resource consumption.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements partial action by applying traditional scheduling computation to only a subset of lots rather than all lots. This selective application reduces total computational resource consumption while maintaining effective scheduling coverage through the complementary simplified scheduling approach applied to the second group of lots.
3Adaptability or versatility
If the scheduling problem size increases with more stations and tasks, then manufacturing comprehensiveness is improved, but difficulty in solving the scheduling problem increases rapidly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the complex scheduling problem into two manageable sub-problems: scheduling the first group of lots using traditional methods and scheduling the second group of lots using a simplified approach. This segmentation transforms an intractably complex problem into two smaller, more manageable problems that can be solved with appropriate methods for each subset.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies traditional complex scheduling methods partially, only to the first group of lots, while using a simplified scheduling approach for the second group. This partial application reduces the overall complexity burden on the scheduling system while maintaining comprehensive scheduling capability across all lots and stations.
Data Source
AI summary
Methods and systems are provided for filtering lot schedules of a manufacturing facility. A first schedule is identified, in which the first schedule is a previously executed schedule. A processing device generates a pool of lots to be scheduled using information from the first schedule, in which the pool of lots is a subset of a plurality of lots associated with the first schedule. The processing device generates a second schedule using the pool of lots.