Web Integrated Decision Support System for Machine Scheduling and Inventory Management

Scheduling and inventory management are two important decision-making processes in any manufacturing industry. Scheduling is done with many objectives, like, aiming to minimize the makespan or minimizing the number of tardy jobs. Inventory management refers to the process of managing stocks of finished products, semi-finished products and raw materials by a firm so as to minimize the total inventory cost. Generally, these processes are treated as two different aspects in the decision-making process. This paper deals with the development of a Decision Support System (DSS) that integrates machine scheduling with inventory management for a multi-product manufacturing industry. The system was developed in three phases. The first phase involves the development of a scheduling system with makespan minimization as the primary objective. The second phase involves the development of the inventory management system and integrating it with the scheduling system. The third phase involves making the system web enabled, so that it provides the flexibility of distributed decision making to the decision makers. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]