Simulation-based planning for precast production with two critical resources

Planning plays an important role in precast production management. In practice, however, this work is primarily carried out on a rule-of-thumb basis. A specialized planning model based on simulation technique and genetic algorithm (GA) is presented in this paper for precast production with two critical resources. A novel priority rule, the critical precast component (CP) rule, is established for mold considerations during simulation, and a bi-directional simulation is adopted to reduce excessive overtime and precast stock. On this basis, three simulation approaches are designed using different simulation heuristics and directions. To test the validity of the proposed model with different approaches, a planning experiment is carried out. By comparison, it is clear that the Simulation-GA based model using CP rule and bi-directional simulation can generate a satisfying resource plan and production schedule.