Analysis of the human role in planning and scheduling via system dynamics

Abstract

A system dynamics model is proposed to analyze the human role in planning and scheduling. Based on the interview research results planning and scheduling activities in manufacturing companies are investigated. By selecting important elements in planning and scheduling, a model of the human role is developed assuming a simple manufacturing environment. Two modes of the model is examined in the simulation experiments, and the results indicate the importance of the human role in smoothing the workload by look-ahead decisions and in reducing the uncertainty by collecting information and coordinating planning and scheduling activities. © 2007 International Federation for Information Processing.