Abstract :
The precast industry is a supplier of building materials to the construction industry. It is capital intensive and the instability of construction demand makes investment in the industry a high risk undertaking. As a result, a highly structured and efficient scheduling system is required to maximise the utilisation of resources and minimise the waste associated with them.
The main objective of this paper is to develop a scheduling model, using the job shop scheduling approach, in order to help production managers to make better planning decisions, and to explore alternative options. The model is a computerised factory simulator which comprises scheduling rules and the factoryʹs attributes. These rules have been developed in this research to mimic the decision making process of a production scheduler.
A number of experiments were conducted using the model as a test bench to evaluate the performance of the scheduling rules under different measures of performance and factory conditions. The work also examined the effect of sales fluctuations on the performance of the model. It was concluded that it is feasible and beneficial to model the industry using the simulation modelling approach in which there is no scheduling rule superior to others under any factory conditions
