Manufacturing Scheduling

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 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

Features
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 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
•  All rescheduling is what if analysis until the rescheduling is saved
•  Ability to undo all changes prior to saving

Constraint-Based Scheduling
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 or pending scheduling jobs on the entire shop floor

Scheduling Single Discrete Jobs
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.

Rescheduling All Jobs or Pending Scheduling Jobs
When you reschedule all jobs or pending scheduling jobs from the Schedule Discrete Jobs window, 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.

Manufacturing Scheduler Workbench Navigation
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:

1. Top left pane: Tree Hierarchy (default)
2. Top right pane: Gantt Chart (default)
3. Bottom left pane: Select Resource(s)
4. 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 messages.

Tree Hierarchy Pane
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 Update Shop Floor Snapshot on the toolbar. You can also choose the Filter Jobs 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.

Expanding and Collapsing Jobs or Operations
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 (+).

Gantt Chart Pane
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. 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
• Automatically reschedule jobs and operations—resources are adjusted according to the newly realized requirements
• View rescheduling activities in the Resource Load Versus Capacity pane by appropriately choosing Refresh Resource Load on the toolbar as follows:
• In manual mode—after saving changes
• In automatic mode—prior to 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
• View exception messages related to jobs and resources requiring attention.

Changing the Timeline
You should change the timeline in the Gantt Chart pane to view at least one complete operation.

To change the timeline
1. 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

2. Choose the appropriate increment to resize the buckets so that at least one complete operation is viewable.
Select Resource(s) Pane
This pane consists of resources 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 to display in the Resource Load Versus Capacity pane.

Resource Load vs Capacity Pane
This pane shows the Required resource load versus the Available resource capacity for the selected resource(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 pane after the changes are saved.

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.

Scrolling and Resizing the Panes
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.
Note: The rescheduling changes can be displayed in automatic mode prior to saving, and in manual mode after saving.
Note: Resource load includes all shop floor demand, not just demand displayed on the workbench.
When scrolling in the automatic mode, first start dragging the job or operation, then use the lower horizontal scroll bar to scroll the screen to the left or right. The job or operation will remain fixed on the Gantt Chart pane while the background time period scrolls left or right, respectively.

Workbench Menus and Toolbar

Workbench Menu Item Description

File Revert and Refresh Restores latest database view.
Save and Refresh Saves latest changes to database.
Close Closes Scheduler Workbench.

Edit Cut Removes selection and stores it in clipboard.
Copy Copies selection and stores it in clipboard.
Paste Copies selection from clipboard to selected location.
Clear Selected Clears selection without storing it in clipboard.
Select All Highlights all the information.

View Bar Inspector Displays Bar Inspector window that shows start and end dates of selected job, operation, or resource.
Resource Load Shows or hides Select Resource(s) and Resource Load Versus Capacity panes.
Refresh Resource Load
Refreshes Resource Load Versus Capacity pane with latest changes.
Filter Jobs Displays Filter Jobs window that lets you display specific
jobs in the Tree Hierarchy pane and corresponding Gantt
Chart pane by entering data in the respective fields
and/or checking the respective check boxes.

Schedule Manual/Automatic Scheduling
Displays dialog box to flag Manual or Automatic job scheduling.
Take Shop Floor Snapshot
Takes snapshot of system information on the shop floor.
Adjust Resource Capacity
Accesses the Departments window from Oracle Bills of Materials so you can adjust resources at your operations

Workbench Toolbar
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