Enhancement of Production Planning and Scheduling by Aspects of Compressed Air Demand and Cost

In industrial companies, production orders are distributed to production equipment using tools of production planning and scheduling (PPS). Main targets are to approach full capacity and profit maximization. As a further dimension of optimization, the demand of compressed air of individual production steps and time-varying cost of compressed air due to fluctuating electricity prices can be considered in PPS systems. Hereby it is attempted to execute production steps associated with significant demand of compressed air in times of low compressed air cost. Based on the approach, a methodology for implementation of compressed air demand into a PPS tool is developed.