Production Plan Support for Branching Process Bottleneck Identification
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing production planning technologies fail to effectively handle production processes with branches, leading to difficulties in predicting and managing malfunctions and resource allocation, as they do not consider the dynamic changes and potential branching scenarios in factory operations.
Innovation Solution
A production plan supporting apparatus and method that calculates the probability of work existence in each time slot for production units and stacks these models to identify potential bottlenecks, allowing for optimized resource allocation and adjustment in production planning.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If production planning considers every possible future situation and branching scenarios, then the reliability of production plan improves, but the complexity of planning process increases significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by calculating and storing probability data for each production unit in advance, before actual production occurs. The system pre-computes the probability that each production unit will exist in each time slot considering all possible branching scenarios, then stacks these probability models to identify bottlenecks proactively. This allows the system to account for multiple future scenarios without requiring complex real-time decision-making during production.
2Adaptability or versatility
If production planning accounts for process branches and dynamic changes, then the adaptability of production plan improves, but the difficulty of detecting and measuring bottlenecks increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces probability as an intermediary concept to bridge the gap between complex branching scenarios and bottleneck identification. Instead of directly analyzing complex process branches and dynamic changes, the system calculates probability values that represent the likelihood of each production unit existing in each time slot. This probability model acts as an intermediary that simplifies the detection of bottlenecks by providing a quantitative measure that automatically accounts for all branching scenarios and dynamic changes.
3Productivity
If traditional process management technology is used without considering process branches, then the device complexity remains low, but the productivity and resource allocation efficiency deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies segmentation by dividing the production process into individual production units and analyzing each unit separately. Instead of modeling the entire complex production process with all its branches as a single system, the method segments the problem into probability calculations for each production unit independently, then combines these segmented results by stacking the probability models. This segmentation approach enables efficient resource allocation and bottleneck identification while keeping the modeling complexity manageable.
Data Source
AI summary
A production plan supporting apparatus and method capable of effectively supporting making of a production plan for a product whose production process has a branch(es). According to the production plan supporting apparatus and method when sequentially inputting a work(s) on a production unit basis to a production process in accordance with a predetermined input plan, first models regarding each of which probability of existence of the work in each time slot of each process is calculated are generated for respective production units, and a second model in which all the generated first models for the respective production units are stacked over one another is generated; and the time slot of the process which will become a bottleneck is identified and displayed on the basis of the second model.