Why Schedule?

“Why schedule?” might seem a facile question in a manufacturing environment. After all, every manufacturer, to a greater or lesser degree, has to plan and schedule production. In fact, most simply scratch the surface.

For most, their MRP or production systems simply do not provide the level of detail they need to manage right down to their own process complexities. No account is taken of current available capacity or constraints. That’s why most companies end up ‘cooking their own soup’.  Over-stressed planners end up spending too much time working with Excel spreadsheets, flowcharts and manual work-arounds.
Even the simplest finished product can go through complex stages that compete for resources, stages that are time and sequence dependent. And every planner has to cope with the unexpected - machine breakdowns, bottlenecks, rework, rush orders, and key personnel not being available.

That’s why smart production scheduling software – used for day-to-day scheduling, capacity planning and ‘what if’ analysis – can deliver such remarkable results.

The short answer to “Why schedule” is that rather than having to invest in new plant, modern scheduling software helps manufacturers get more out of existing facilities.

Longer term it helps companies rationalise manufacturing. And as a bonus, it also reduces errors and increases the productivity of planning staff.

Let’s see how…

Production scheduling in the real world

Intelligent scheduling systems reflect the real world. Real world constraints such as machine availability, people, their skills, tool changes, technical support, colour sequencing and sterile hold times.
They recognise how batches mesh together, how products can take alternative routes in the production process and how multiple products can use the same facility. Here are some examples:

Sequencing

We will start with the batch footprint. At its simplest, a batch footprint is little more than a list of consecutive processes, often portrayed on planning charts as ‘floating chimneys’.



Modern production scheduling software goes much further. It can recognise that, for a single batch, the tasks have to occur on the same equipment. This is important because in a scheduling problem we need to view more than a single batch. We need to see how the batches mesh together.

What’s more, modern systems can manage multiple products in the same facility - different products, with a different batch footprint and a different choice of alternatives for routing. Real world.
And they can schedule all resources at the same time. Unlike most project management tools, intelligent production scheduling systems tell us what resources we need for each task and when they are needed. No conflicts.

Being able to manage complex sequencing, reducing the number of setups and making changes as circumstances dictate, all adds up to a significant improvement in plant and resource utilization.

Improved visibility

Effective production scheduling software can provide real visibility, across any number of planners and managers. Some systems can also integrate easily with existing ERP and planning systems, which means that planners are able to pick up feedback from execution systems with a live view of the production.
Such feedback alone can be sufficient justification for moving from Excel-type models to production scheduling systems. And KPIs can be built-in to ensure that whenever live decisions are made, any adverse ramifications are flagged up.

By defining views that are user-specific, smart scheduling systems can highlight different areas of the plan to different people. Views that automatically, when integrated with execution systems, keep pace with real time and highlight tasks that have been started, completed and so on.
Visibility of customer orders is a major tool that allows planners to improve on-time-in-full deliveries. And once companies feel more confident with the reliability of their planning data, it quickly becomes possible to improve lead times and cut WIP.

As an example, Cope Allman Jaycare users of our own Orchestrate production scheduling software have reported a reduction in WIP of 25% and a reduction in lead times of around 30%. Wastage has been cut significantly, simply because they now have fewer tool changes.

Taking the long view

Production scheduling systems can often be used to enhance longer term Capacity Planning, or Sales & Operations Planning – an area traditionally plagued with unrealistic and over confident plans.

The level of detail and deep understanding of specific production processes possible within smart scheduling systems makes ‘What if?’ scenario planning a reality.

Boosting planner productivity

Finally, breaking free from time consuming, inflexible and error-prone Excel-type scheduling, boosts planner productivity.

In the words of one of our own customers, Steve Brownlee, IT Director, Verna Group: “What used to take a whole day for a planner can now be accomplished in twenty minutes. That doesn’t just mean eliminating the hassle; it means we can afford to run alternative scenarios, knowing that built-in KPI alerts will keep us on track. All that from a system that cost one third the cost of competitive systems. A system implemented in just six weeks and getting absolute benefits.” 

Conclusion

ERP and production execution systems offer very real advantages to manufacturing companies. However, when it comes to complex scheduling – and even simple finished products can involve complex interactions, routings and resource constraints - they are too generic.

They cannot take cognizance of the each company’s very specialized interactions between operations and resource constraints. And they often fall at the first hurdle, unable to cope with infinite capacity planning.
In the real world, there is no finite capacity of machines, tooling, materials, labour or other resources. And in the real world, change is the only constant.

Advanced planning and scheduling software eliminates most of the hassle associated with semi-manual planning systems. It is responsive to change and is nimble enough to provide alternatives whenever unplanned constrains occur – always with a close eye on KPIs. That is why it is so valuable, squeezing the most out of existing resources. Improving operational performance as well as planner performance.
Visibility of customer orders allows planners to improve OTIF deliveries. And once companies feel more confident with the reliability of their scheduling, it quickly becomes possible to improve lead times and cut WIP.

Orchestrate boosts efficiencies and drives down WIP at Cope Allman Jaycare

Simple products often have to go through complicated manufacturing sequences. This is particularly true for Cope Allman Jaycare, Europe’s largest injection blow moulding experts.

When the company decided to adopt Orchestrate, from Production Modelling, to automate their production scheduling, they set themselves some ambitious objectives – all of which have been met. In the system’s first twelve months, Work in Progress has been cut by 25 per cent, On-Time-In-Full (OTIF) delivery performance improved, the number of tool changes has been reduced and materials wastage cut. All this with a smaller planning headcount that has managed to significantly improve customer lead-times.

Cope Allman Jaycare are global specialists in the design and manufacturing of rigid plastic packaging and are market leaders in the Pharmaceutical and Healthcare sectors. Their pharmaceutical packaging includes containers for prescription only and over the counter medications while, in the medical sector, products include specialist packaging for infection control, diagnostics, hospital supplies, medical devices and so on. A vast range with very different characteristics, colour ranges and configurations. To complicate the process further, many products have to conform to strict regulatory requirements.

Despite being the supplier of choice for many blue chip companies, Cope Allman Jaycare cannot rest on their laurels. Their customers demand a high quality product, good service and competitive pricing. With these points in mind, Cope Allman Jaycare looked to Orchestrate to help them make improvements to their production scheduling that would drive down the cost of manufacture.

   


The Challenge - Scheduling resources to maximise efficiency and cut wastage

The company employs a J D Edwards ERP solution for their computing needs but, like so many ERP users, found that comprehensive though they may be, they simply cannot cope with highly detailed scheduling requirements. For example, before adopting Orchestrate production scheduling software, planners had used spreadsheets to balance constraints when bringing together resources such as moulding tools, technical support for tool changes and ancillary equipment such as heaters. To reduce clean-down time, they had to accommodate colour sequence, from light to dark, and they had to consolidate different products to minimise tool changes and material wastage. Cap moulding had to be planned in line with the manufacture of containers and subsequent on-body printing, ready for cap mounting and the insertion of wadding.

There had to be a better way to schedule resources, so the company researched the market for a production scheduling software solution that would integrate easily with their other systems.

 

The Solution

“After researching the market and visiting users of different software solutions, we selected Orchestrate because it ticked all the boxes,” says Peter Teague, IT Director. “In particular, Orchestrate was the only solution that would support multiple planners in multiple locations. We have factories and planners in both Newcastle and Portsmouth and we wanted our planners, each looking after their own set of machines, to be able to use the system at the same time. Just as importantly, the people at Production Modelling impressed us with their understanding of how we worked and what we wanted to achieve.

Master data, such as product information, bill of materials, production routes and stock are all maintained within the JDE system. Orchestrate maintains the more detailed information required for scheduling, such as optimal colour sequencing and tooling information. Customer orders are input to JDE and then transferred automatically into Orchestrate for the more complex planning processes, with works orders automatically fed back to JDE. Both systems working seamlessly together eliminates unnecessary data entry and associated transcription errors. Orchestrate production scheduling software makes it a simple process that results in better sequencing and productivity increases.

According to Peter, the first year’s results were remarkable: “Three of our key performance objectives were to reduce work in progress, cut lead times and reduce wastage. Because we have so much more confidence in our scheduling, we don’t have to run so far ahead with production, which has resulted in a 25% reduction in WIP. Customers are delighted because lead times have now been cut from 6-8 week down to 4-6 weeks; much nearer the four week level and still improving. Wastage has been cut significantly simply because we now have fewer tool changes.”

“Other benefits include improved productivity from our packers, something in the order of 5%, which is quite significant. Our OTIF performance has improved from 92% to 97%. The important thing is, these are all quantifiable benefits.”

“We have also gained from less quantifiable improvements. As well as reducing planning headcount, they now have more time to take on extra responsibilities, such as procurement planning. Communications, both internally and externally have improved. The tool room can see schedules for themselves and can contribute directly – online self service. Being able to make changes directly into Orchestrate production scheduling software means fewer meetings. And pegging orders to purchase orders means we have been able to move more suppliers onto a Kanban approach, where they hold stocks for us and we call off on a daily basis. As to customer communications, we can make much better ‘available to promise’ commitments.”

Peter is confidently expecting more benefits from the system over the next twelve months, particularly in budgeting, partly by using ‘what if’ scenarios. Key Performance Indicators will also begin to play a more prominent role in planning and scheduling, which will help planners to recognise immediately the implications of any planning decision.

Last word from Peter: “ A great system and a marvelous group of people to work with. They really do understand our processes and are keen to help us find new ways to squeeze more out of the system.”

Free Scheduling Software

Production Modelling are proud to release the full version of Orchestrate (Standard) free production scheduling software for 14 days!

Simply complete the online form and you will be able to download the full working version of Orchestrate Standard free production scheduling software. You will then be emailed a license code activating the scheduling software for 14 days, free of charge!

Included within the installation is a ‘Demo_Manufacturing’ database that shows you how simple it can be to plan orders on the Gantt chart. A new Webinar has also been created demonstrating how to build the model in under 30 minutes.

Orchestrate (Standard) scheduling software allows you to create, import and store databases on your computer with multiple logins for different users. It’s simple, intuitive Gantt chart enables you to plan orders in seconds and communicate what needs to be done when and on what resource.

Orchestrate (Standard) scheduling software has a multitude of functionality that can be turned on or off as required, making it simple for you to focus on the real complexities within your business.

Alternatively, Production Modelling can demonstrate our free production scheduling software via a live WebEx.
Production Modelling are keen to hear from you and answer any questions you may have. Please contact us  to speak with one of our team.

Scheduling Software goes live in just six weeks!

Orchestrate Scheduling Software goes live in just six weeks – boosting planning performance at Vernagroup

Vernagroup is a remarkable Bolton-based company that has a mission to be global leaders in providing premier medical pulp products, macerators and complementary products and services to healthcare markets around the world. Their advanced manufacturing processes are key to delivering the most cost effective products to a demanding market sector in all five continents. Orchestrate has transformed the management and control of production - a painless implementation in record time.

There must be a better way of doing things!

“What used to take a whole day for a planner can now be accomplished in twenty minutes. That doesn’t just mean eliminating the hassle, it means we can afford to run alternative scenarios, knowing that built-in KPI alerts will keep us on track.”

Steve Brownlee, IT Director, Vernagroup

“Our production facilities are state-of-the-art for our industry, with patented innovative technology and robotics,” says Steve Brownlee, IT Director, Vernagroup. “Yet our planning systems were cumbersome and unwieldy, relying heavily on spreadsheets and burning a lot of midnight oil. There had to be a better way of doing things, so we decided to computerize the process. Our selection criteria were clear: a proven ‘out of the box’ system that is cost effective, easy to implement, easy to use, and not requiring lots of IT support.”

The project team looked at more than one solution and selected Production Modelling’s Orchestrate scheduling software. “We liked the fact that it was a modern system so, unlike its competitors, it is very intuitive in use,” Steve explains. “It’s also very ‘visual’, very well presented, which makes it so much easier to assess different planning scenarios.”

To reassure themselves, the team visited Steelite, another successful manufacturing company with similar production complexities. The management at Steelite were able to demonstrate that Orchestrate offered the benefits of a packaged solution that could quickly be customized – very cost effectively.

“One third the cost, implemented in six weeks and getting absolute benefits”

"It has been somewhat staggering,” Steve comments, “the capability of the software to deal with our complexity, and also how rapidly the team from Production Modelling could configure the system to match our environment. Most systems in this arena are tricky to use and hard to set up. Orchestrate took just a couple of days to learn. The team from Production Modelling got to grips with our processes – from raw materials to finished product -within days, and were able to demonstrate a ‘first draft’ system configured to our production processes within two weeks. After our critique, they came back with the finished product.”

“We have gone from signing off a purchase order to delivering a fully functional solution that delivers absolute benefits in only six weeks!"

“... and that in a situation where we have spent around one third of the cost of the nearest rival solution.”

So, what are the benefits?

Steve describes the benefits: “We use Orchestrate for both strategic and day-to-day capacity planning. Looking two, three, four years ahead, we can assess capacity, any potential restrictions, storage requirements and any demand for additional production capability. At a detailed level, we are able to plan weekly and day-to-day production to meet sales forecasts and to maintain appropriate stock levels to service NHS and other customers. Our products are crucial to the effective running of hospital or private care facilities.”

“What used to take a whole day for a planner can now be accomplished in twenty minutes. That doesn’t just mean eliminating the hassle, it means we can afford to run alternative scenarios, knowing that built-in KPI alerts will keep us on track.”

“Specific products have to be dedicated to certain production lines, while other lines can accommodate mixed products. Add to that the need to minimize the changing of tool heads and you can begin to appreciate the complexity. Orchestrate scheduling software allows us to manage and police which products run on which lines and for how long, maximizing efficiency and throughput.”

“The system also takes into account planned downtime for regular servicing. Our aggressive growth plan mean we will shortly are looking to increase our operations. Our strategic planning shows us how well Orchestrate will be able to accommodate that.”

Last word from Steve: “It has been a painless experience and I can be confident that the users really are self sufficient. Orchestrate will never be a drain on IT resources. It has also been refreshing to work with such a focused supplier. People who are very passionate about their solutions and who can also be pragmatic. When they say they will deliver – they really do.”

Why Use Simulation Software

We at Production Modelling are often asked "How can I best run the factory to achieve my business objectives yet at the same time, meet customer demands?" Manufacturers are continually being asked to increase production volumes in less time with less people and for less money. Trying new ideas out in the factory are all very well, but they can take time, be disruptive, very costly, and you may not get it right first time. Today’s managers can’t afford to take such risks when implementing change.

Experimenting with new ideas on a computer model before you make changes for real is simple common sense. It takes the risk out of change. This is where simulation software users have gained a competitive edge, an advantage that results in bottom-line benefits to their business.


Why not flowcharts or process mapping?

Many organisations use static modelling tools, such as flowcharts, process mapping, and spreadsheets. Flowcharts and process mapping tools have their place, but on their own, they merely show relationships between processes and generally don’t provide any quantitive performance measures.


Why not spreadsheets?

 Spreadsheets are very useful, and do have their place, but also have serious limitations.

• They are static models. This means that they cannot represent changes that occur with respect to time.
• They are deterministic – using constant values, approximations or averages rather than the variability that exists in real life.
• They can’t represent interdependencies. In other words, process steps are independent of each other. Again, a serious deficiency, as this limits the validity of the models.

At best, spreadsheets can give misleading results, and in many cases wildly inaccurate predictions. At worst, business decisions can be made on entirely inaccurate information. It’s no surprise that companies often wonder why the results from their spreadsheet models don’t match reality.

Here’s a simple illustration to prove why simulation is so important:

Picture a small cell where parts arrive on average every 30 seconds, queue for Machine1 or Machine 2, each of which takes on average of 1 minute to process

A spreadsheet model of this would show no queuing, 100% utilisation of the workstations, and average lead-time of 1 minute. In other words, a nicely balanced system.

Look what happens if we use variability. A normal, (bell-shaped), distribution of the same averages would be a more realistic way of representing the variability that exists in the real world.

Using a simulation model, running the process for just 8 hours, the results show a completely different (but more accurate) story. The machine utilisation is less than 100%, there are up to 13 jobs queuing for the machines, and the average lead time is over 5 minutes!!!

Imagine the difference in a more complex process, or if the process runs for a week or a month.

Click here to request a copy of this Model.


Why use Simulation Software?

This is why simulation software is so important. Simulation, and only simulation, takes into account the combined effect of variability, uncertainty, and complex interdependencies between processes
Production Modelling's simulation software is helping companies improve their businesses and become more competitive. Increasingly competitive markets bring new challenges and customers' demands are constantly changing. As a result, manufacturers need to become more responsive, more quickly, more efficiently, yet often within tighter budgets and timescales.

Production Modelling's simulation software is helping them to visualize, analyse and optimise their processes to achieve these business performance improvements.

Furthermore, simulation software is often used to help “sell” ideas to others to gain their commitment to change and show why one method will work better than another. The visual accuracy and animation of the model can provide a powerful communications tool. It can help speed up decisions affecting changes in the factory, and get people from the shop floor through to senior management all committed to the same ideas.

Capacity Planning / Production Scheduling within the Pharmaceutical Industry

Production Modelling’s flagship scheduling software system, Orchestrate, has become firmly established within the process industry and many users in the pharmaceutical industry have seen great success in its deployment.

Orchestrate assists with two areas of work where purpose built tools are few and far between. To begin with, it provides the process engineer with a user friendly tool for capacity analysis. Secondly, having invested much time and money in plant design, the same Orchestrate model can then be used for daily production scheduling and planning.

Orchestrate has seen an equal amount of success when integrated into plant design programmes and also as part of a programme to identify and solve bottleneck problems in existing, well established plants.

One of the world’s largest bio-pharmaceutical capital investments - Pfizer BioPharma Campus, West Dublin

Reduce Time To Market

There is much reference material with regards to process knowledge management as a method of accelerating time to market. In summary, if we could utilise that same data at the design stage, pilot stage and the commercial production stage, then there would be much to gain.

Orchestrate scheduling software extends this argument by providing a common dataset and interface for each individual stage of the production process. With Orchestrate scheduling software the plant can be operated identical assumptions and constraints to those used at the design stage.

As a result, another major advantage of using Orchestrate is that the software system can hold process templates for particular products and processes. Thus the company’s intellectual property can then be reused for the latest products and new plants. In effect, we would not need to “reinvent the wheel” every time we use the system. So, through using Orchestrate for new plant design, plant modification and daily planning, the plant design process can be accelerated and, therefore, we can decrease the time to market. Read more…….

Barclays Cycle Hire Utilises Simulation and Scheduling Software from Production Modelling

Company: Serco

The extremely complex logistics behind the redistribution effort for 6,000 bikes around 400 docking stations involving over 10,000 docking points, with enormous ebbs and flows of demand over the course of each day, is a huge challenge. Over the first six months of operation, Barclays Cycle Hire members pedalled the equivalent of ‘13 times the distance to the moon and back’ – over 10 million kilometres in 2.5 million journeys. Production Modelling have been working in conjunction with the service provider, Serco, to highlight the best methods of managing the redistribution of bikes, both now and as the scheme expands – with amazing results.

The Challenge - Moving Complexity Away From The Point Of Delivery

It is important to understand the vast scale of the operation. Fifteen per cent of the demand during each day takes place over just one hour, between 8.00 am and 9.00 am, involving around 3,000 cycle hires. A large proportion of this activity is generated by commuters who are arriving at mainline rail stations. With an average hire time of 20 minutes, each bike is re-docked across a extremely wide area, particularly concentrated in the city. In order to maintain high customer service standards, these cycles have to be redistributed to the high volume demand locations as fast as possible. At the end of the working day, the flow reverses and commuters making up the majority of users, expect availability of bikes close to their workplace. All this activity is carried out against stringent Key Performance Indicators which are designed to allow the hire experience to be as simple and as efficient as possible for members.

Modelling and Simulation

Graham Bright, Customer Experience Manager at Serco, joined the project in April 2010 and quickly identified the role that planning, modelling and simulation software systems could perform in making informed decisions. A highly detailed tender document was prepared and Production Modelling’s Service Model simulation software was chosen from a shortlist of three systems. According to Graham, the proposal from Production Modelling demonstrated the best functionality and most cost effective performance. The truly unique aspect, though, was an extra software solution, Orchestrate, that takes the user beyond simulation into visualisation.

Service Model assists Serco in working out the efficiency of their redistribution vehicle operation, while Orchestrate enables them to observe the reasons why various areas are performing differently. They can operate ‘what if’ scenarios which are based on validated data.
The system also enables them to feed a real day’s data to simulations, including the quantities and types of redistribution vehicles, where they had been allocated, and the various tasks assigned to them. Managers can then observe performance in terms of the amount of traffic at docking stations, running simulations with data they know they can trust. From there, it is easy to extrapolate the implications of, say, a 25,000 or a 30,000 hire day. Read more…….