University/industry cooperation on an integrated production planning software system

Over the last two years, teams of Master's level students at Cornell, working together with the Production Control staff at the Battery Strategic Business Unit of Delco Remy, have created an integrated microcomputer-based software system for planning battery production. The system includes elements for demand forecasting, order allocation among multiple plants, and dynamic production scheduling within each plant to balance inventor and overtime labor in the presence of a highly seasonal demand pattern. On the academic side, the students have benefited by having their required project work focus on a very real problem. On the industrial side, Delco Remy has obtained a system which represents state-of-the-art methods, and which is implemented and working.<>