Master Planning and Scheduling, 4th Edition

12Finishing or Final Assembly Scheduling

Rolling delivery promises gather no reorders.

Up to this point, the focus has been on bringing together the material and the capacity to build products that customers will eventually order. At some point the manufacturing floor must be told what to produce, in what quantities, and in what configurations. This communication is accomplished through the finishing (or final assembly) process. The finishing process converts the master plan and/or master schedule from a plan into manufacturing action.

The finishing schedule establishes work authorization—that is, approval to perform work on defined products, using specified capacity and materials—according to a schedule that identifies the sequence in which the work is to be performed. The finishing schedule sets priorities for finishing, assembly, filling, testing, kitting, packaging, and so forth. This communication has a variety of labels: work orders, production orders, shop orders, factory orders, job orders, campaigns, batches, detailed production or line schedules, scheduling boards, run rates, and kanbans.

Manufacturing Strategy Tied to Finishing/Final Assembly Schedules

The manufacturing strategy of the company has an impact on how and when work authorization should be released to the finishing and/or final assembly process. Is the company pursuing a make‐to‐stock, finish‐to‐order, make‐to‐order, engineer‐to‐order, or design‐to‐order manufacturing strategy on the various products ...