The Ashford Group - Scheduling

SCHEDULING

Scheduling is the foundation for operational success in a manufacturing facility. The scheduling process, the tools used, and the performance measurements tell a compelling story about the operation. A friend of ours likes to say, "Inventory is the result of poor scheduling". To which we always add, "So are late orders and low productivity".

Our experience is that the most difficult part of an implementation of a formal business management system - MRP II or ERP - is what happens on the shop floor. Shop floor management requires:

		Schedules that are valid and doable - capacity and material are available
		Production information - process data specifications, drawings, history
		Reporting of what has happened - production, scrap, machine status
		Messaging - getting the reports back to those who need to know and take action

The main reason why this is a difficult task, is that the scheduling tool that comes with the MRP II or ERP system does not have the necessary functionality.

Traditional CRP and infinite scheduling in the MRP II and ERP software tells you the impact on capacity of the firm and planned schedules in the system at a point in time and it leaves the management of late or missed schedules and over scheduled work centers to the production scheduler - no easy task. This task becomes greater as the number of parts increase, the number of work centers increase, the lead-time increases, and work centers become capacity constraints and the constraints move.

ERROR MSG Finite scheduling software systems attempted to address the capacity issue but seldom provided a final answer - they kept on running and looking for a better solution. APS (Advance Planning and Scheduling) systems provide recommended schedules and identified issues - late orders, capacity constraints - associated with those schedules. However, these are systems for the Production Control department and basically stop with the issuance of schedules. We always thought that there had to be a "better way".

The better way is a scheduling software product that is a complete shop floor management tool. Besides schedules that consider capacity and report production (APS functionality) it would also allow:

		Reporting of machine uptime/downtime.
		accommodation in Oslo Reporting of scrap, MRB activity, release of rework and impact on schedules.
		Access to a part drawing from CAD files.
		Access a process sheet in a text file to review process specifications.
		Slanchev Bryag accommodation flightsAccess of historical data to know what happened the last "n" times the part was produced and reported.

ERROR MSGThe monitoring of the schedule status and reporting data should be real-time, that this information is made available in custom reports to those that need to know on a real-time basis, and action can be taken fast.

For the past 25 years we have

		ERROR MSG Assisted manufacturing companies, both small and Fortune 100, implement or re-implement business systems - MRP, MRP II, ERP, APS and TOC.
		Developed applications for capacity planning, scheduling, inventory management, and machine uptime/downtime reporting to accelerate systems use, training, and payback.
		Identified improved software products that provide better scheduling functionality.
		Used the TOC philosophy (since 1986) and a "hands-on" approach to TOC in our consulting assignments because it provides positive results - FAST.
		Used the Lean Manufacturing philosophy to focus on improvements and advocate techniques to control the flow of material on the shop floor and eliminate waste.

The Ashford Advantage is that we apply our experience and expertise in education, training, and implementing MRP II, ERP, APS, TOC, and Lean Manufacturing systems, principles and practices to support our clients' specific operating environment and scheduling needs.