Glossary · System coordination, integration and orchestration
Production dispatching
Also known as: Dispatching, Shop floor dispatching
German: Produktionsdisposition
In manufacturing operations management (ISA-95 / IEC 62264), production dispatching is the activity of releasing scheduled production work to specific resources, such as work centers, lines or machines, at the right time and in the right order, taking current availability into account.
- System integration
- Standards
In one sentence
Production dispatching releases scheduled production work to specific lines or machines at the right time, based on current availability.
Example
The MES dispatches order 4711 to line 2 at 06:00 because line 1 is in maintenance, and sends the recipe and quantity to the line controller.
How it applies
- Engineering: In the ISA-95 activity model, dispatching sits between detailed scheduling and execution. The interface to the control level transfers order data, recipe or parameters and receives start, progress and completion information.
- Operation: Dispatching reacts to reality: machine breakdowns, missing material or quality holds. Define who may override dispatching decisions and how.
- Integration: Keep order and resource identifiers consistent between ERP, MES and controllers; mismatches cause orders to be dispatched to the wrong resource or not at all.
- Documentation: Document the dispatching interface (messages, states, error handling) for integrators, and describe the operator's view of dispatched orders in the MES or HMI manual.
Dispatching vs. scheduling
Scheduling plans which orders run on which resources over a time horizon. Dispatching releases the next work from that plan to execution now, adjusting to the current situation. A schedule can be perfect on paper and still need dispatching decisions when a machine stops.