PPDS planning - work center with shuttle

[Markus]

shuttle-workcenter.jpgHi Experts

We have one workcenter, which is a machine with shuttles. The machine has e.g 3 shuttles.3 operations from 3 different planned orders are assigned to the machine. Once the run has started the total run time if the sum of the individual operations. for example operation 10 from planned order takes 10 minutes, operation 20 from planned order 2 takes 50 minutes and operation 10 from planned order 3 takes 20 minutes. Therefore the run will take 10 + 50 + 20 = 80 minutes.

The output of the operations is only available for all 3 subsequent steps at the end of the complete run; it is not possible to get the output for planned order 1 earlier.

We would like the planning system to always make runs with a complete machine (if there are 3 shuttles, then three operations should be assigned to it ).

Currently when PPDS plans, it fills the machine, but we cannot create these variable time blocks.The outcome of the operation is always available immediately, while in reality is has to wait to for the end of the complete run.

We have looked into block planning without variant configuration, but we were not able to create blocks of variable length ( being the sum of the individual operation run times ). As they run time can vary heavily, taking the average is not a good solution.

Added a JPEG with a graph to clarify the need.

Any suggestions?