Digitalization for flexible and resilient production planning and scheduling in engineer-to-order manufacturing

Delivery reliability and customer satisfaction are critical for manufacturing companies that follow engineer-to-order manufacturing. Efficient production planning and scheduling is a vital requirement for flexible and prompt customer delivery. However, the uncertainty and volatility due to specific customer order requirements, production disturbances, and demand and product volume fluctuations result in frequent replanning or rescheduling of the production plans or schedules in engineer-to-order manufacturing. From a theoretical perspective, this article provides an overview of the strategies and solutions to enhance production planning and scheduling in engineer-to-order manufacturing through a literature study. From an empirical perspective, the article provides results from two industrial case studies where digital tools or digitalization were used to facilitate replanning or rescheduling and thereby attain flexibility and resilience in production planning and scheduling in engineer-to-order manufacturing.