Case—Production Scheduling at Falcon Die Casting

Falcon Die Casting Company (FDC) is an automotive parts manufacturer based in Ohio. FDC recently patented an innovative method of high volume die casting using traditional die casting machines. This patent was instrumental in FDC receiving a long term contract from a major automobile manufacturer for the bulk of its requirements for five key die cast items used in most of its automobiles. The customer provides FDC with an indication of the possible demand for the next 12 weeks with the understanding that demand beyond Week 2 is tentative and subject to change depending on auto sales during the preceding weeks. Table 1 shows the projected demand for the next 12 weeks. FDC can produce the parts on five die casting machines, each of which is capable of producing a subset of the parts as indicated in Table 2. For example, Part 1 can be produced only on Machines 1 and 2.