Jeremy Wiegman

Have you ever heard the statement, “you don’t know what you don’t know”?  While this statement may seem redundant, it exemplifies a common challenge we all face in the world of manufacturing.  The challenge of knowing there is a better way, but not knowing exactly what the better way looks like.  ERP systems have provided great insights into how the business is running and has access to significant amounts of data.  This data until utilized to solve real life problems, could be considered trivia, nice to know, but not real applicable. 

One area that is recognized as needing more visibility and clarity is the area of planning and scheduling.  Many manufacturers utilize excel spreadsheets and/or MRP (material resource planning) and a significant amount of tribal knowledge to produce a manufacturing schedule.  This process is often labor intensive and error prone.  It also contributes to fire fighting and frustration.  The net result is lost efficiencies, increased costs, late orders and ultimately, dissatisfied customers.

One of the challenges of using spreadsheets to manage the production schedule is spreadsheets are prone to errors, take considerable time to recalculate, and are often out of date when posted. Spreadsheets are also very difficult to create “what if” scenarios.  In addition, spreadsheets and ERP systems don’t have a user-friendly graphic interface which allows the user to experiment with the schedule to determine the optimal order of jobs.

By utilizing an APS system (advanced planning and scheduling), manufacturers will be able to identify bottlenecks before they occur, orders that are anticipated to be late, shortages in material, coordinate workload between resources or departments, create scenarios to experiment with scheduling “what if” questions, see impact of decisions and product flow real time, and know when to anticipate order completion on every order in the system.  This information is invaluable when determining how much work to take on and when it’s necessary to purchase additional equipment.

Planet Together, an APS software solutions provider, can be a key player in helping you grow and improve by providing the information you need to help navigate your business.  Planet Together utilizes the information available, whether from an ERP system or from spreadsheets, then schedules it is using predefined rules and algorithms.  The schedule is then presented in a graphical display that allows the user to see where jobs are at, to see early, on-time and late orders, material shortages, labor calendars, and what if scenarios.  The software also calculates metrics based on desired KPI’s. 

While having an APS doesn’t answer all of the questions that arise in the manufacturing setting, it does take a big step in reducing “what we don’t know”.  If you have any questions or would like to know in greater detail what Planet Together’s software can do for you, please contact Scheduling Solutions at info@schedulingsolutions.net