Scheduling

Scheduling

Make production scheduling easy in Discrete & Batch Manufacturing

 

Real-time production scheduling software for improved visibility and team communication

Still using Excel spreadsheets for day-to-day production scheduling? Whilst simple to create, these solutions are hard to maintain and difficult to share.
 
With production scheduling software, you can visualise the production plan in real-time, save time and react faster to unplanned events while optimising capacity and resources.
 
The Scheduling software module of Shopfloor-Online MES is the ideal solution to: 
  • Create production orders manually or download from the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system
  • Sequence production orders on production lines/processes
  • Identify line and machine changeovers, tool changes and material changes 
  • Schedule start and end dates based on master data like cycle time and order quantity
  • Assess manufacturing capacity and ability to meet order deadlines
  • Communicate the production schedule to the shop floor
  • Get real-time feedback on the schedule as production executes
  • Avoid the burden of a heavy finite capacity scheduling system
 

Production Order Management

  • Download orders from ERP (include BOMs and Routing if required)
  • Manually create production orders (also called work orders) - useful in some scenarios
  • Assign orders to lines and decide the running sequence
  • Split large orders into a series of smaller orders, or run campaigns

Discrete Manufacturing

  • Plan production for every operation in the routing

Batch Manufacturing

  • Plan equipment for each batch at every stage of production

Production Planning 

  • View the sequence of production orders against each production line
  • Automatically calculate start and end dates
  • Highlight key information e.g. the status of each order; due date achievement
  • Re-sequence by moving orders between lines and changing their position in the queue
  • Reduce change-overs by grouping orders with common attributes e.g. materials, tools and colour 
  • Add job-specific instructions for operators
  • Experiment with the schedule and release to production when complete

Real-time Updates

  • Instantly communicate schedule changes to production
  • If production slows or stops , the schedule is instantly revised
  • If production equipment breaks down it is possible to redirect the orders to other compatible lines 

Visualisation & Reporting

  • Visualise the production schedule as a Gantt chart including change-overs, tool changes and material changes
  • View schedule dependencies on materials, labour and tools
  • Report conformance to schedule and demand
  • Improve on time delivery: visibility of delivery dates 
  • Save time: assigning orders to production lines/processes and optimising the plan
  • Visualise the plan: production scheduling with real-time visibility for everyone; reduce unforeseen knock-on effects of planning decisions
  • Communication: improve communication between the planners and production teams
  • Instant feedback: when production is not achieving the plan, know what has and has not been done
  • React faster: when production lines stop or run slow, the plan is updated in real-time
  • Agility: adapt to change quicker and respond  to unplanned events
  • Improve resource management: optimise capacity and resources
  • No more spreadsheets: schedule production on an Enterprise platform

Sustainable Energy

►Ceres Power case study
Fuel cell manufacturer scales up production of a complex product through automation of 20 simultaneous processes.

Pharmaceuticals

►I-Holland case study
Precision tools manufacturer reduces lead times and waste through automated order processing and shop floor data collection.

Textiles

►John Cotton case study
Leading UK homewares supplier benefits from a sleeker production scheduling process, improved visibility and data accuracy with Shopfloor-Online MES.

The Scheduling module must be used with the Job Tracking software so that planned orders can be executed and feedback is then given to the planners.

Further increase the power of Shopfloor-Online’s Production Scheduling software with additional modules:

  • Production Counting – see order progression in real-time against the schedule, update start and end dates automatically and be alerted to any jobs that will miss the deadline
  • Inventory – look at WIP or finished goods created out of the process as an alternate way of counting production and view progress as above
  • Tool Management – plan specific tools to use
  • Labour – project labour requirements to meet the schedule