Print production planning

Problem

• To efficiently plan print jobs in print center production
• To have proper estimation about amount of work
• To track available resources

Solution

• I overtook system after 6 months of development by other developer
• System had some UI, but there was no planning algorithm implemented
• I developed complete planning system which allowed to use these data
  • Available resources (human and infrastructure)
  • Shifts, overtimes and unavailability of resources
  • Separation of planning jobs to steps, each requiring resources
  • Calculation based on speed of selected resources
  • Ability to start next step parallel to previous of first result of previous
  • Ability to split work
  • Ability to merge multiple jobs to one for efficiency
• UI to display all of this
• Planning is sufficient so that it’s not just estimation, but production jobs are released to production based on planning

Advantages

• Planning engine is completely separate from rest of system
  • It’s reusable
  • It’s simple to test