Development of finite capacity material requirement planning system for assembly operations

A conventional material requirement planning (MRP) logic considers infinite capacity of machines. A planner must manually solve capacity problems (if any) after the material requirement plan has been generated. This paper tries to alleviate the capacity problems by developing a finite capacity material requirement planning (FCMRP) system for assembly operations. The FCMRP system is capable of automatically allocating some jobs from one machine to another and adjusting timing of the jobs considering a finite available time of all machines. The FCMRP system has been tested using real data from a steering-wheel factory. Effects of options – namely, scheduling, rearranging and adjusting options in the FCMRP system on the performance measures – are statistically analysed. The FCMRP system can reduce required overtime if the jobs are allowed to be completed earlier than the due dates. The required overtime can be further reduced if the jobs are allowed to be completed later than the due dates.