Egri, Péter

Gyulai, Dávid

Kádár, Botond

Monostori, László

SZTAKI Publication Repository

European manufacturing industry wouldbenefit by transforming the current hier-archical supply chains into networks,based on partnerships with a new under-standing of business approaches andservices provided to the partners (B2B)and to the final customers (B2C). To thisend, we investigated innovative deci-sion-making methods that integrate pro-duction planning at single plants into themanagement of the whole global net-work. The research is funded by theEuropean Union within theRobustPlaNet 7th Framework project,involving four academic and sevenindustrial partners from Hungary,Germany, Italy and The Netherlands.Robustness aspects of productionplanningIn general, production planning methodsrely on deterministic input data, hencefail to cope with the dynamic effects ofthe execution environment and the con-siderable uncertainty of the underlyingplanning information. Robust tech-niques that can provide feasible produc-tion plans are required to address thesechallenges. Robustness in productionplanning involves refined approachesthat can handle predictable or unpre-dictable changes and disturbances,respond to the occurrence of uncertainevents (reactive approaches) or protectthe performance of the plan by antici-pating uncertain events (proactiveapproaches) [1]. In our methodology,robust planning is the logical layer ofthe robust production. A productionplan is considered robust if it achievesan acceptable level of the selected per-formance indicators even when unpre-dictable disruptions occur during theexecution of the plan. The robustness ofthe system often works against otherefficiency criteria, hence a trade-off isrequired if the objective is to increasesystem’s robustness. In theRobustPlaNet project, robust planningmethods are defined both at the networkand plant levels of the production hier-archy (Figure 1).Planning in supply networksThe main goal on the network level is toenable robust and system-wide efficientproduction in a dynamic, unpredictableand global environment. Performancecan be improved by implementing threecomplementary tasks. Firstly, the net-work design deals with configurationand re-configuration in order to providea structure that is robust against diverse,largely unpredictable supply chainrisks. Secondly, the supply chain plan-ning matches supply and demand byconsidering statistically predictablefluctuations and disturbances. Finally,the coordination mechanism harmo-nizes the decisions made in a distributedmanner, and supplements the risk man-agement toolkit with risk sharingschemes.The proposed methodology for supplynetwork planning starts with identifyingand analyzing the main sources of dis-turbances. Possible ways of managingthese problems are then investigated,including estimated cost analysis.Owing to the complexity of a net-worked production system, the resultantalternative action plans are then evalu-ated in a multi-method simulation envi-ronment, enabling the combination ofmulti-agent, discrete event, and systemdynamic modelling aspects in a generalframework. This planning process willenable the network to respond to var-ious circumstances, supporting efficientoperations on the lower levels of theproduction hierarchy.Robust production at the plant levelAt the plant level in the production hier-archy, planning methods are aimed atcalculating robust production plans thatrespect the possible uncertainties of areal production environment, main-taining the target level of key perform-ance indicators, although disturbancesoccur during the execution of the plan.The robustness of the plans is providedERCIM NEWS 105   April 201614Special Theme: Logistics and Planning  Production Planning on Supply Network and Plant Levels: The RobustPlaNet Approachby Péter Egri, Dávid Gyulai, Botond Kádár and László Monostori, SZTAKIIn today’s competitive manufacturing industry, efficient production planning is of crucial importanceto match the supply with the customer order stream. The RobustPlaNet approach aims to supportthe decision makers at different hierarchical levels of production enterprises to react or even toproactively plan and manage their activities in a more robust way than it used to be in thetraditional practice.Figure1:RobustplanningmethodsoftheRobustPlaNetproject,definedatnetworkandplantlevels.by proactive, simulation-optimizationapproaches that mostly rely on near realtime algorithms processing actual his-torical production data that is used indiscrete-event simulation models toanalyze possible future production sce-narios. By applying statistical learningmethods on the dataset provided by thesimulation experiments, the outcome offuture scenarios can be predicted ana-lytically, even considering the sto-chastic parameters and random eventsthat were represented in the simulationmodel.  The prediction models are inte-grated into the mathematical optimiza-tion models that are responsible for cal-culating the robust production plans [2].IT platform to support the planningactivitiesThese novel planning tools and modelsare all integrated in a common softwareplatform called Simulation andNavigation Cockpit. Each of the func-tional modules can be triggered inde-pendently directly from this platformwhich employs the modules as black-boxes in the background and offers anintuitive web-based GUI on role-basis.Additionally, the integrated platformallows the user to define custom,problem-specific workflow mecha-nisms where the modules are chainedsequentially, each operating on the samedatabase. Depending on the organiza-tional requirements of a productioncompany, different roles can be grantedwith different data access levels withinthe integrated platform, ensuring thatusers can only access data that they arepermitted to.This research is supported the by theEuropean Union 7th FrameworkProgramme Project No: NMP2013-609087, Shock-robust Design of Plantsand their Supply Chain Networks(RobustPlaNet).Links:www.robustplanet.euhttps://www.linkedin.com/groups/8137114References:[1] T. Tolio, M. Urgo, J. Váncza:“Robust production control againstpropagation of disruptions” CIRPAnnals-Manufacturing Technology,vol. 60, no. 1, 2011.[2] D. Gyulai, B. Kádár and L.Monostori: “Robust productionplanning and capacity control forflexible assembly lines” IFAC-PapersOnLine, vol. 48, no. 3, 2015.Please contact:Botond KádárFraunhofer PMI, SZTAKI, HungarianAcademy of Sciences, HungaryTel: + 36 1 279 6176botond.kadar@sztaki.mta.huERCIM NEWS 105   April 2016 15Business process management usuallyrelies on a Business Process Model(BPM), specified using one of the avail-able Business Process ModellingNotations (BPMN). Working with theLivorno Port Authority, we successfullyadopted BPM data analysis to find com-monalities and discrepancies betweenthe mandatory guidelines for controllingthe arrival and departure of goods andthe current implementation of the ship-ping systems known as the Tuscan PortCommunity System (TPCS) [3]. TPCS is a web-services based platformwith multilevel access control and datarecovery facilities, which aims to sup-port and strengthen the management ofshipping lanes according to Italian regu-lations. TPCS processes a huge amountof information, enabling a reduction incosts and the streamlining of adminis-trative procedures. It can be used for thecomplete management of all connectedapplications handling cargo movementsand import/export operations, andinvolving all the actors interested in theinformation flow, such as shippingagencies, custom forwarders, freightforwarders, terminals, hauliers, and alsothe Control Authorities.The users can generate and manageCargo Manifests during export, andUnloading Lists during import opera-tions. In both operations, users caninteract with the platform in order toknow the status of goods (e.g. loaded orunloaded, cleared for customs etc.).They can also request and receive goodscertificates and authorizations (e.g.phytosanitary authorization) for dan-gerous goods via the SUD (SportelloUnico Doganale - Customs SingleWindow) interface.A storytelling approach has been usedto create the business process model forthe TPCS. The method is summarised inFigure 2, where three main stakeholderscarry out the tasks proposed by the sto-rytelling methodology: the Tellers(PortCommunity Experts), the Facilitatorand the Modellers(BPM Experts). TheTellers are those individuals who partic-ipate in the process and therefore havedomain knowledge. They are asked todescribe their activities explicitlythrough a story. The Facilitator is anexperienced professional in the applica-tion domain who helps the story tellersto produce coherent stories and the firstabstraction of the models. TheModelling and Validating an Import/ExportShipping Processby Giorgio O. Spagnolo, Eda Marchetti, Alessandro Coco and Stefania Gnesi, ISTI-CNRIn recent years, business process management has become increasingly popular in many industrialcontexts and application domains. This is mainly because it facilitates the modelling of processspecifications and the development of an executable framework, while providing concise definitionsand taxonomies. The data acquired during the business process execution phase can be used forquality analysis and to demonstrate compliance to specifications. We describe an experience in thereal world context of the Livorno Port Authority.

Production Planning on Supply Network and Plant Levels: The RobustPlaNet Approach

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