Effectivity date analysis and scheduling

The impact of design on logistics cannot be ignored, and design for logistics is a new concept similar to design for manufacturing or design for assembly. Engineering change is one of the scenarios that would require logistics support. Change control of a product data management (PDM) system is one of the major approaches for handling engineering changes today. According to principles of configuration management, during the change control workflow, there are three different dates: release date, effective date, and effectivity date utilised for controlling and managing change planning and scheduling. Effective date is the exact date that a released change takes effect to the shop floor workshop. Effectivity date is the expected date that decision makers plan for the change to take effect. In normal situations, multiple disciplines, such as design and development, purchasing, shop floor workshop, quality control, and so on, are involved in making a change decision on when a change is to become effective. In this paper, a linear programming effectivity decision model is proposed to concurrently support changes of design scheduling, and production planning and scheduling when an engineering change occurs. The proposed model succeeded in solving an integration problem of design scheduling, production planning and shop floor scheduling.