A Heuristic Scheduling System for Ceramic Industrial Coatings

We developed and implemented a heuristic-based scheduling system for Ceramic Industrial Coatings (CIC), a large producer of paint and wood coatings in the Midwest. We experienced implementation issues and problems in the process of developing the heuristic system. The paint coating industry has unique scheduling problems. Results included a 39-percent reduction in manufacturing processing time, a 23-percent reduction in late batches, a 49-percent reduction in scrapped batches, and a 72-percent reduction in scrap cost.