Optimization of production plan through simulation techniques

The production costs reduction in a highly competitive environment is a critical success factor. In particular, in fields where outsourcing is used frequently and the impact of the material costs is high, a significant cost reduction can be achieved making more efficient value chain. Moreover, the use of outsourcing is a way to adjust production capacity depending on demand. Therefore the coordination and planning of the various rings of the chain and the estimate of the productive capability of the various production units become fundamental for a coherent evaluation of promised delivery times. More and more frequently and in greater detail the Companies at the “end of the network” require, through capacity assessment a verification of the available productive capacity of the manufacturing units, both from a quality and quantity point of view, that each single firm can dedicate to a certain type of production. In this paper it is presented a simulation model that allows the elaboration of an operative plan of production through the verification of finite capacity scheduling of resources. The model tends to minimize costs of stocking and set-up, considering other production costs as constant. The simulation is a technique that allows the checking with better precision of the use of the resources with variation of the ties. This approach lead to a high performing instrument in the field of the advanced planning and scheduling through analysis of the various possible views. The auxiliary use of the optimizing tool available in the ARENA software allows an optimal solution, confirming the validity of the study of new applications of the simulative instrument for the verification of productive capacity in the short term. Key-Words: Supply chain management, advanced planning and scheduling, finite capacity scheduling, capacity management, simulation.