Abstract
The current business environment in pump manufacturing companies is characterized by markets facing fierce
competition. Customer expectations as a result are becoming increasingly higher in terms of quality, cost and
delivery dates. These expectations are even worse due to rapid development of new information and
communication technologies which provide direct connections between companies and their clients. Therefore,
companies must have powerful “planning and controlling” mechanisms at their disposal. To achieve this,
companies rely on a number of functions including production scheduling. Production scheduling strategies and
disruptions management in pump industry are investigated, followed by a new-fangled concept suitable for
addressing problems considered herein. Slot allocation process which starts by assigning slot number and/or
confirmed order and ends when it is accepted into the queue by operations planning is presented. We further
examine and relate market needs with manufacturing capacity available and supplier capacity by employing
basic theory of work measurements, e.g., TAKT time, etc.