A framework for planning and scheduling of manufacturing enterprises

Most control models of manufacturing systems do not adequately address the complex problems that modern manufacturing enterprises face. Many models oversimplify manufacturing operations and objectives, ignore customer oriented objectives, emphasize optimal control at the expense of robust, realistic models of production, and fail to tie stated control objectives to overall business objectives. We describe a framework for control of manufacturing enterprises that encompasses a wider scope of activities than is typically considered in control models. Our framework is a loosely coupled hierarchy in which information is shared among different levels of the hierarchy and decisions at one level can serve as constraints at other levels. We outline the structure of this framework, specifying for each level the time horizon and the relevant decisions, objectives, and constraints.