In a fast-paced manufacturing world, optimizing productivity is a top priority—but so is ensuring that you’re producing the right products at the right time. During our recent webinar, we explored the powerful integration of three QAD solutions designed specifically for this purpose: QAD Redzone Connected Workforce, QAD Production Planning and QAD Advanced Scheduling. Together, these tools not only help manufacturers increase productivity but also enable them to align production with demand, ensuring that every resource is maximized to support customer needs.

Starting with the End in Mind: A Connected Workforce

The QAD Redzone Connected Workforce solution is a “System of Action” designed with a singular purpose in mind: to better enable frontline workers to connect, communicate and collaborate. It starts with the execution of a daily schedule, designed to increase workforce productivity and improve collaboration. By enhancing workers’ ability to connect with one another and share information in real time, manufacturing plants can optimize operations, drive greater productivity, improve safety conditions and create a positive culture in which workers feel empowered. This platform has already proven its ability to boost shop floor productivity and efficiency by 29% on average, if not more, often increasing Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) in a similar range. With QAD Redzone, manufacturers can connect frontline workers through collaborative tools, enabling them to work together in real-time, troubleshoot faster, and ultimately improve output.

And, this raises a key question: Even with improved productivity, are you confident you’re producing the right items to meet demand?

Feeding QAD Redzone the Right Schedule with Advanced Scheduling

Boosting productivity without a well-planned production schedule can lead to inefficiencies—like producing surplus inventory or failing to meet demand. To address this, QAD Advanced Scheduling comes into play, creating a minute-by-minute, line-by-line optimized production schedule for each plant. This advanced scheduling system works by taking a capacity-constrained production plan and tailoring it to each plant’s unique needs, focusing on optimizing changeovers, aligning with current demand, and maintaining peak efficiency. 

QAD Advanced Scheduling answers the “How to Make” question for products a specific plant has to produce. QAD Advanced Scheduling can be configured for any time horizon. It is typically in the neighborhood of about 28 days but can be viewed longer or shorter based on company needs. The exact timing typically depends on the products being made and the timeframe of the data being imported from a production plan. The tool determines the production sequence for each line down to the day, hour and minute. It can schedule both up and downstream activities in a linked fashion to truly create a functional, cost-effective plant production schedule to minimize changeovers, meet customer order dates, minimize inventory costs and improve overall productivity. There are multiple ways to create the schedule with sophisticated scheduling commands including an advanced method of “Product Wheels” to create a preferred cyclical schedule.

When paired with QAD Redzone, this schedule empowers production teams with a well-thought-out roadmap, enabling the connected workforce to drive even better OEE results. By synchronizing a feasible, optimized schedule with QAD Redzone’s Connected Workforce capabilities, manufacturers not only improve productivity but also maximize line efficiency, making sure that every task adds value and aligns with the plant’s capacity and capability.

“You Can’t Schedule Your Way Out of A Bad Plan!”

An optimized schedule is only as effective as the production plan that drives it. The foundation of the entire process begins with creating a capacity-constrained production plan. That is where QAD Digital Supply Chain Planning (DSCP) steps in. Production Planning creates a constrained plan that considers the entire scope of the organization’s manufacturing resources. 

QAD Production Planning also answers the “What to Make” question. The planning horizon is typical in the time range of 12 – 52 weeks but can be lengthened or shortened based on the products being made, and the lead times of raw materials and other organizational planning factors. This initial plan ensures that each plant receives realistic production targets, avoiding the costly scenario of scheduling out of a poor or unrealistic plan. With a robust production plan in place, companies can feed Advanced Scheduling a well-balanced workload, empowering teams to not just meet but exceed their productivity goals while staying responsive to changing demands. Production Planning can create plans for the entire organization. If you need to determine which plant needs to make which products and when, this is the tool to use. It can assist in determining when you need to use external resources such as contract manufacturers. 

QAD Production Planning sets the parameters and framework for your production schedule that will feed the Connected Workforce solution. This process and flow is critical to an organization because no matter how good your production schedule is, you cannot schedule yourself out of a bad production plan.  

The Full Workflow: Aligning Resources, Schedule and Productivity

By integrating QAD DSCP Production Planning, Advanced Scheduling and QAD Redzone Connected Workforce, companies can create a seamless workflow:

1. Capacity-Constrained Production Plan: The Production Planning module ensures that each plant’s production goals are achievable and aligned with demand.
2. Optimized Scheduling: Advanced Scheduling then translates this plan into a precise, actionable minute-by-minute schedule, tailored to each line.
3. Worker Collaboration and Real-Time Performance: With a well-sequenced schedule in QAD Redzone, frontline workers can collaborate effectively and make real-time adjustments to meet and exceed their productivity goals.

Building an Adaptive Enterprise with Integrated Systems and Operations

This structured approach not only boosts OEE but also ensures every piece of equipment and every person in the organization is working toward producing exactly what the market demands. With QAD’s enterprise tools, manufacturers can shift from a “productivity-only” mindset to a strategy that ensures productivity, alignment with demand and maximum profitability.

These tools help manufacturers align and optimize your people, processes and systems in your manufacturing operations. This allows you to be efficient, resilient and agile simultaneously. It helps you deliver the right products to the right place at the right time while minimizing costs and maximizing profits helping you to become an adaptive enterprise.

Want to learn more? Watch the webinar on-demand.