THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN INTEGRATED PRODUCTION AND STRATEGIC PLANNING SYSTEM FOR BUILDING PRODUCTS MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY

The Building Products Manufacturing Industry (BPMI) is a major supplier of a wide range of building products to the construction industry. The research project is targeted towards building product manufacturers who supply the market from different factories at different locations. In order to reduce cost of production and maximise profit, products should be made at the most economically viable factories and every region in mainland Britain will be supplied from favoured factories. Management role is, therefore, to plan strategically a production budget for each factory in relation to other factories and the distribution of finished products to regions. The objective of the research is to develop an integrated strategic distribution system that can advise management on strategic and detailed production planning. The system is composed of an integrated data-base module strategic rough-cut capacity planning module, factory module and knowledge rules that direct the decision making process of the system. An industrial case study has been conducted in order to validate the system and expose its potential. It is concluded that the system is beneficial and practical for the BPMI.