MES Optimizer

Scheduling dental bur production with linear programming

Gruppo DAM is the only Italian manufacturer of tungsten carbide burs for the dental sector, with a plant designed around Industry 4.0 principles. Together with VPS, the Avigliana-based company that looks after the firm’s software systems, I worked on one specific question: how to schedule work on the shop floor.

The problem

The sequence of jobs on the machines was decided by hand. With many items, batches and constraints to respect, manual scheduling inevitably leaves downtime: machines waiting, unoptimized changeovers, delays piling up during the day.

The solution

I developed a Python pipeline that formulates scheduling as a linear programming problem: it takes orders, machines and production constraints and computes the job sequence that minimizes downtime. The pipeline is integrated into the internal system connected to the MES, so the optimized plan lands exactly where the shop floor uses it.

• Optimization model built on the real constraints of the shop floor
• Automated Python pipeline, with no manual steps
• Integration with the internal system and the MES
• Hands-on support for the team, including after delivery

The result

Downtime, previously caused by manual job scheduling, dropped drastically, and overall production times with it. Scheduling no longer depends on one person’s experience and can be recalculated whenever orders change.