Optimisation has made a big impact on strategic and tactical planning in many areas, including manufacturing, transport, logistics and energy. However, on a shorter time-frame, the performance of optimisation technology tends to drop dramatically. In this age of just-in-time manufacturing and short lead times, this is increasingly becoming a problem. With rising customer demand for greater flexibility and responsiveness, short term planning scheduling are of ever-increasing importance - but most optimisation systems just can't keep up.
Why is this? The answer lies in the structure of the technology. The most common technology for planning is still mixed-integer linear programming. Whilst this is good for broad-brush planning, it is unsuitable for detailed scheduling. And on the day of operations, there is little time to wait for a solution nor interpret an approximate solution. We need to model in detail, solve the problem quickly, and create a solution that can be directly implemented.
This is one of the key reasons why Opturion uses a very different technology. Our intelligent decision making software is based on cutting-edge methods that allow us to quickly adapt to changing circumstances.
