CAREER: Scheduling of Large Scale Systems

University Of California-Berkeley, Berkeley CA

Investigators

Abstract

The objectives of both the research and educational components of this Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) project are to improve the efficient scheduling and control of large-scale production systems. Rapid advances in information technology have led to unprecedented visibility into each of tile stages of production and distribution networks' this has served to highlight the need for efficient algorithms and systems to assist managers with the effective allocation of resources, and for educational programs that help current and future managers effectively use these algorithms and systems. This CAREER research involves rigorous analytical analyses of several classes of large-scale production scheduling models. Novel tools will be developed in order to analyze both the structure of various large-scale production scheduling problems, and the solution approaches which are typically employed. This analysis will increase understanding of these systems, and lead to new, efficient, robust algorithms for production scheduling, with a particular focus on models which involve due date related objectives, including those in which due dates are determined within the context of the model. Additionally, these techniques will be applied to models which capture complexities inherent in manufacturing processes which encompass several plants, factories, or sites. The education portion of this proposal focuses on conveying the concepts and intuition which will enable students to effectively employ the algorithms and systems which result from this research. This includes the development of new courses, and the development of computer games which help to illustrate important intuitive concepts about production and distribution networks, and supply chain scheduling. These models involve scheduling and controlling production and distribution across a supply chain, and will enable the exploration of the tradeoff between the costs associated with holding semi-finished goods between production stages at different facilities, the efficient utilization of these facilities, and the minimization of transportation costs.