Dynamic Scheduling
Automotive Industry Challenges
Schedules should be flexible. Things happen – customers change their delivery requirements, equipment required for
a particular build breaks down, raw materials are unavailable and so on. Manufacturing scheduling cannot be a static
time table of planned events. It must take into consideration the following:
- Manufacturing Capacity
- Asset Availability
- Resource Consumption
- Real-time plant floor information from Order-Entry and MES systems
Customers want product built to their specific needs as quickly as possible. This engineer-to-order approach requires
that manufacturers build orders in small quantities to deal with an ever-increasing number of market segments. This
coupled with the fact that capital is limited requires that manufacturers have systems in place to get the most out of
their existing assets – idle equipment equates to lost margin.
Dynamic Scheduling Best Practice
This I/Gear Dynamic Scheduling module integrates sales-order entry and shop-floor production systems. It enhances
the scheduler’s decision making process by organizing information based on many dynamics that can impact
production. The benefits include:
- Improve asset utilization – from a process perspective the equipment calls for the next order it can fulfill
- Improve margin by building what customers are buying today versus building to inventory
- Shortened leads times by eliminating delays and optimizing the use of existing resources
- Lower raw material and finished goods inventory
Manufacturing environments today are characterized by high product variety and short delivery times. I/Gear delivers
current, accurate data that improves work/equipment loading based on capacity and actual orders.
Operators can view the demand for each product as well as the current schedules for each machine that can build that product.
Real-time status facilitates deciding what is going to be built next and where. Raw materials and personnel required are notified.
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