Patent ID: 7043318

Claim:
An automated system in a facility that manufactures m products, where m≧1, comprising: a virtual factory, the virtual factory containing objects corresponding to physical elements of the facility that manufacturing m products; and a software object coupled to the virtual factory, the software object including means for identifying a selected bottleneck workstation from among a plurality of n bottleneck workstations, each of the plurality of n bottleneck workstations being associated with a distinct one of a plurality of bottleneck delta virtual work in process time (“VWIP”) values, each of the plurality of bottleneck delta VWIP values representing the time until the associated bottleneck workstation begins to risk starvation; means for determining that the selected bottleneck workstation is associated with a lowest bottleneck delta VWIP value from among the plurality of bottleneck delta VWIP values; means for determining whether products starts should be recommended for the selected bottleneck workstation; and means for recommending starts if starts should be recommended for the selected bottleneck workstation.