Cable Production Scheduler (CAPS): Methodology for a real- time shop floor scheduling tool.

The Cable Production Scheduler (CAPS) is a real-time micro- scheduling tool developed at the request of the Atlanta Works Copper Shop. Although developed for the standing and sheathing operations of cable production, the methodology is generic and could be applied to other job shop scheduling problems as well. The approach is to decompose the problem into several problems of the form "n jobs on m parallel (but not identical) machines" and solve each of these smaller problems with an efficient bin-packing heuristic. Several different scheduling options exist for the user to choose from, giving the program flexibility and the capability to address "what if" questions. The resulting algorithm is very fast, requiring one to two seconds of CPU time for scheduling a week's load for Atlanta. This memorandum documents the CAPS methodology; the software is documented in a companion memorandum to be issued soon.