international journal of ELSEVIER Int. J. Production Economics 51 (1997) 19-35 production economics Planning of multi-site production - an object-oriented H.-P. Laubscherb model H.-J. Bullingera,*, K.-P. Faehnrich”, a Fraunhofer Institut fuer Arbeitswirtschaft und Organisatioion, Nobeistr. 12, 70569 Stuttgart, Germany b Trumpf GmbH & Co., Johann-Maus-Str. 2, 712 Ditzingen, Germany Abstract Economic coercions within the automotive industry, the mechanical engineering or the electrical industry require cost reductions and means for prompter reaction due to a constantly altering market. The cooperation of several sites provides a solution of this challenge. Enterprises which show alternative as well as complementary production possibilities at several locations, have to plan the coordination of interaction between sites. However, conventional planning systems are not designed adequately - neither their functional nor their architectural basis ~ in order to cover the requirements of multi-site production. An object-oriented model is proposed to project multi-site production within the operative scope of production planning. A generic workplan model of a production process in multi-site production is developed and its implementa- tion is pointed out. An examplified application of the model is portrayed in the area of car-manufacturing industry. Keywords: Production planning and control; Multi-site production; Object orientation; Workplan; Architecture 1. Introduction Economic coercions within the automotive in- dustry, the mechanical engineering or the electrical industry require cost reductions and means for prompter reaction upon a constantly altering mar- ket. The collaboration of several works in the form of multi-site production provides a starting point. Enterprises which show alternative as well as com- plementary possibilities of production at several locations, have to plan the coordination of interac- tion between the works. Multi-site production disposes of a shared stor- age in order to coordinate the transportation * Corresponding author. between the works or workshops. Bullinger et al. (1992) stresses the necessity of applying a system for the planning and the controlling of the complete processes to make sure the coordination of parall- elly happening courses of events. An information system which is equally used in enterprises and integrates the production planning and control (PPC) on the technical part may lead to an im- mense acceleration and qualitative improvement of the order management. Therefore, enterprises with several sites must have such an information system at their disposal. And so PPC requires a global logistics set, what renders a high production flexibility by the utiliz- ation of existing alternatives within the logistical chain up to a synchronized usage of the produc- tion capacity which is available in the enterprises 0925-5273/97/$17.00 Copyright 0 1997 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved PII SO925-5273(97)00072-S 24 H.-J. Bullinger et al./Int. .I Production Economics 51 (1997) 19-35 StartTimeFrameRuIe, GetStartTimeFrame( Duration, EndTimeFrame), SetStartTimeFrameRule( NewRule), GetEndTimeFrame( QISU), GetEndTimeFrame( Duration, StartTimeFrame), SetEndTimeFrameRule( NewRule), O u GetDuration( QISU), SetDurationRule( NewRule] &GetDuration( StartTimeFrame, EndTimeFrame) GetArrivalLocations( ), SetArrivalLocation( ) Fig. 5. Class for service and transportation WP demands Fig. 6. Classes for resources. 5.6. Workplans A workplan may represent an atomic operation, a workplan net or workplan alternatives (see Fig. 2). An order or a process contains an individual workplan which includes, apart from attributes in- dependent of orders, information which is specific for the order. That is why an order-specific class is
