Up-to-date business environment for manufacturers is very complex and rapidly changing. In other words, companies are facing a variety of changes, such as diversifying customer requirements, shortening product life cycles, and switching to small quantity batch production. In this situation, the companies are introducing the concept of JIT (just-in-time) to solve the problem of on-time production and on-time delivery for survival. Though many companies have introduced ERP (enterprise resource planning) systems and MRP (material requirement planning) systems, the performance of these systems seems to fall short of expectations. In this paper, the case study on introducing an APS (advanced planning and scheduling) system based on dispatching rules to a machining company and on finding a method to establish an efficient production schedule is presented. The case company has trouble creating an effective production plan and schedule, even though it is equipped with an MRP-based ERP system. The APS system is applied to CNC (computer numerical control) machines, which are key machines of the case company. The overall progress of this research is as follows. First, we collect and analyze the master data on individual products and processes of the case company in order to build a production scheduling model. Second, we perform a pre-allocation simulation based on dispatching rules in order to calculate the priority of each order. Third, we perform a set of production simulations applying the priority value in order to evaluate production lead time and tardiness of pre-defined dispatching rules. Finally, we select the optimal dispatching rule suitable for work situation of the case company. As a result, an improved production schedule leads to an increase in production and reduced production lead time.

The advanced planning and scheduling(APS) is an well known enterprise information system that provides optimal production schedules and supports to complete production on time by solving the complex scheduling problems including capacity and due dates. In