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Quintiq (News - Alert) a specialist in supply chain planning and optimization has set 98 world records for solving Flexible Job Shop Scheduling Problems or FJSSPs.

Supply chain planning puzzles which are large and complex are faced by organizations of all sizes. Although they may seem impossible to solve, Quintiq solves them using a single supply chain planning and optimization software platform. Quintiq serves about 12,000 users in over 80 countries helping them plan and optimize workforces, logistics and production.

Wim Nuijten, Quintiq’s VP of optimization technology, said, “We have yet to encounter an optimization challenge that cannot be solved by Quintiq. Finding this number of best-known solutions to the FJSSP is a notable achievement and a high testament to the capabilities we can offer clients who face scheduling puzzles.”

The scheduling problems of FJSSPs arise owing to the constraints that exist in a production environment. Operators set machines to perform certain orders. This forms part of a bigger system or sequence of operations required to finish a job order.

All FJSSP scenarios involve the completion of the entire set of tasks to complete job orders in minimum time. The FJSSPs include details like the number of jobs and number of machines that will be used. Also each job comprises of a fixed sequence of operations and some of these operations can be taken up by some special machines only.

Also to be considered is the fact that the processing time of an operation will vary depending on the machine that is used. One machine can run one operation only at a time. The Quintiq optimization team leveraged the supply chain planning and optimization platform and studied in detail all the published instances of the FJSSP besides the results.

From these details the Quintiq optimizer detected optimum solutions for 98 instances of which 80 are already proven to be successful.

“Production-based organizations can achieve maximum efficiency through optimization, using fewer machines, less production time overall and generate more profit. We call this the profit economy,” Nuijten added.

The logistics software implemented by Quintiq has enabled Czech Post to experience significant route optimization in its daily operations. Quintiq’s software platform was configured to enable Czech Post to optimize its parcel delivery services. The software was implemented ahead of schedule with strong support from T-Systems (News - Alert) Czech Republic, a longtime Quintiq partner. To date, the application has enabled Czech Post to decrease total driven distance by over 9 percent, exceeding its initial goal.