Optimised Production Scheduling for better decisions
Production scheduling is a complete circle that encompasses the allocation of materials, resources, and processes that are necessary to produce products on time. The goal of scheduling is to make the manufacturing process flow with maximum efficiency, balancing the production needs with available resources and what is more, doing it in a cost-effective manner.
The role scheduling plays in everyday production operations is huge and therefore, it cannot be disregarded, for it can result in very high profit losses. The scheduling cannot be made using a static scheduling tool as changes in production are often, and only a dynamic scheduling tool can take into account the changes, limitations and look at production as a part integrated with other business and production areas where all the data is interconnected.
The digital transformation supported by the Sistrade® Scheduling solution:
Advantages
- Prevents unscheduled downtimes and delivery delays
- Organised and up-to-date stocks, avoiding a material shortage
- Less waste and lower costs in production
- Complete integration with shop floor
- Automatic sync with production data collection
- Machine setup time reduction
- Auto-optimisation
- Easily assigned employee/operator work
- Performance monitoring and control support
- Increase in productivity
- Simulation and comparison of production planning scenarios to simplify decision making
Dynamic Scheduling Tool
In Sistrade® Scheduling module, as a part of an integrated ERP system, the job order before reaching scheduling already takes into account many details in terms of materials and operations planning, ready to be scheduled. Scheduling in Sistrade® happens mainly using a well-recognized Gantt chart. Where the horizontal axis is a timeline and the vertical lists all the machines of the plant. Each bar represents a job order. As a dynamic tool, the control of what appears in Gantt chart is quite simple, job orders can be inserted manually or automatically, they can also be removed from scheduling, any finished or interrupted operation can be managed, and the schedule recalculated.
For a better production and demand coordination, different bar colours warn the user about different job order status: produced, finished, scheduled, late for delivery and other.
No less popular than scheduling in Gantt is scheduling in a table format, where all the details for each machine are listed providing the user even more information. Just like in Gantt, in table format operations and job orders can also be moved by drag and drop.
Features
- Drag & drop in Gantt
- Job orders displayed in Gantt
- Colour bar indicating if JO is scheduled, produced or outside the scheduled date
- Automatic scheduling recalculation for a better machine occupancy rate
- Gantt zoom in or zoom out
- Parametrise operation time
- Outsource particular tasks
- Dynamic planning with start/end indexing and delays
- Auto-adjustable settings including delays and events
- Generate and export Gantt to PDF
Scheduling Criteria & Changes
One of the key features of the tool is criteria setting option. Where each company can decide what are going to be the scheduling criteria. It means that the user can decide if scheduling is based on forecast delivery date or a number of colours or any other chosen, and define the priority by a simple drag & drop, not only timewise but also between different machines.
Besides, the user can readjust the duration or fix the job order in one particular machine due to some technical specifications, so that it cannot be moved to another and reduce defects.
Deep Optimisation Tool (AI)
As an ultimate way to scheduling and manufacturing process optimisation and for the situations when the system assistance is necessary, Sistrade® is equipped with a decision making assistance tool, which is based on the selected criteria, machine occupation load or any other suggestion of the optimal path, the user then decides to accept these improvements or not.
For example, based on the Setup Times Matrix, the scheduling tool can suggest a change of machines for an optimal setup time, which results in a 30 minute shorter setup, not only saving the time but the resources as well. After accepting the suggested optimisations the user has to recalculate or refresh scheduling and the changes will be applied.
Scheduling Scenarios
Enabling scenario data-driven decision making is one the most important and quite complex task. Sistrade® Scheduling tool allows simulating different scenarios to the current, without affecting the production rollout and comparing them. The scenario comparison feature provides the users with the perfect tool for informed decision-making with the possibility to select the most efficient and cost-effective scenario.
Opportunities for Improvements: Employee and Machine Load Analysis
The importance of continuous improvement for companies is the question of survival. In terms of scheduling, Sistrade® provides reports and dashboards for data analysis that lead to more efficient and optimal scheduling. One of the examples of such features is Gantt comparison report of forecasted, real and current scheduling, where the managers can see the whole picture of what is going on in the production and look for ways to improve.
When it comes to employee management, the scheduling tool allows analysing and requesting employees’ time to produce jobs in question. This feature ensures effective employee time management assigning them to certain production operations, all this contributes to the optimal distribution of workforce reducing costs and increasing quality.
For the machine occupation and load distribution, Sistrade® provides a chart that allows viewing and analysing the machine workload, displaying machines in the plant by date, where each colour stands for a different machine, for the companies to exploit its existing resources to their maximum capability.
Communication with the Shop Floor
Scheduling cannot be done as an isolated task, as a result, Sistrade® Scheduling communicates directly with the shop floor and vice versa. To add, for the companies where the scheduling is performed by the production manager, there is a feature of detailed scheduling in the shop floor control interface where for every machine or every manufacturing stage it can be done by using drag & drop or through barcodes.
Sistrade software user testimonials
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