Concepts
Every PlanifAI problem is described with the same pieces.
| Concept | What it is | In production | In maintenance | In shifts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Resource | What does the work and has a capacity | Machine, booth, line | Asset, workshop | Person, post |
| Task | A piece of work with a duration that occupies one or more resources | Phase of an order | Service | Shift on a post |
| Order | A set of tasks with a date | Customer order | — | — |
| Constraint | A rule the plan must respect | Order of phases | Interval between services | Minimum rest |
| Objective | What you want to improve | Meet due dates | Levelled availability | Cover without straining rules |
| Proposal | A computed plan, awaiting a decision | Plan with a new order | Annual plan | Cover for an absence |
| Current plan | The accepted plan, the one being executed |
Hard and soft rules
Section titled “Hard and soft rules”- Hard: always met. If the problem has no solution without breaking it, the result says the plan is not feasible and which rule fails.
- Soft: met as far as possible. Whatever is broken is penalised and the result says by how much.
Due dates are usually soft (being late is penalised, but the plan exists). The order of the phases in a process is hard.
The plan works in a time unit (minutes, hours, days or weeks) chosen for each problem. Durations can be expressed in another unit and are converted. Everything starts at a plan start date and runs up to a horizon.
Fixed and free
Section titled “Fixed and free”A task can be fixed: it has already started, someone has fixed it by hand or it is part of a known stoppage. The engine does not move it and plans the rest around it. This is the basis of replanning.