QAD Advanced Scheduling helps manufacturers improve productivity and accelerate factory performance. The solution optimizes production decisions by determining what products to make on each line in the best possible sequence to minimize changeovers, optimize inventory, and align cash, cost and service goals. 

To improve competitiveness and profitability, manufacturers are looking to technology to help become more efficient, agile and resilient. QAD Advanced Scheduling helps in these areas by scheduling related products together, in the best sequence, with visibility to inventories, capacity, product attributes and changeover costs.

Traditional Scheduling Challenges

Too often, manufacturers are relying on manual processes, complex Excel spreadsheets and the tribal knowledge of a few essential team members to meet scheduling objectives. These outdated approaches lack the agility, accuracy, and real-time insights to optimize production in today’s fast-paced world. QAD Advanced Scheduling is available to address today’s challenges and bridge the gap between production planning and production execution.

Your factory may be falling short to produce the required products to meet customer demand due to the following common challenges:

• Insufficient capacity considerations – Capacity plans rarely factor lost time as a result of excessive changeovers, setups and Clean in Place (CIP) activities.
• Insufficient labor considerations – Optimal resource allocation needs to fully account for specific resources and skill sets.
• Late materials – There is a lack of synchronization between expected material receipts and production needs.
• Excess or Insufficient WIP – Poor synchronization between upstream and downstream production stages often exist.
• Unforeseen disruptions –  Unexpected disruptions occur frequently and include supply chain issues, demand fluctuations, equipment failures, quality problems or labor shortages. Early detection and an ability to rapidly reschedule is required to minimize any negative impact on production activities.

Solution Capabilities

QAD Advanced Scheduling mitigates the risks of interrupted production by scheduling plant-floor activities on a sequence-sensitive continuous time-line (Gantt chart). This allows precise calculation of resource setup, changeover, and CIP for each product based on its attributes. This, in turn, provides an accurate picture of future capacity allocation and minimizes the likelihood of unforeseen overtime and missed customer orders. Additional capabilities include:

• The solution develops a schedule based on various constraints that include:
  • Calendar and shift constraints – Your production planner accurately understands which resources are available when.
  • Labor constraints – Know your workforce capacity and how much of each skill set is required for each activity, including setup and changeover activities. This prevents production disruptions caused by insufficient manpower or double-booked critical resources.
  • Material constraints – The solution provides time phased future projections of material availability and detects any violation caused by lateness (or earliness). This prevents production disruptions caused by short or late material deliveries.
• QAD Advanced Scheduling synchronizes every material flow in the factory from the receipt of material receipt to the finished product rolling off the packing line. Any misalignment in timing or quantities caused by upstream or downstream disruptions can be highlighted and resolved. This eliminates WIP waste caused by misaligned production and consumption activities.
• The solution closes the scheduling loop by ensuring actual production counts are fed back into the schedule to enable lateness or earliness, shortage or surplus, are proliferated through the plan. This provides greater visibility for identifying potential violations or excess capacity opportunities.
• Your organization can identify potential constraint violations in real-time and leverage an intuitive Gantt driven user experience to resolve violations with a soft-touch impact on the current plan. The speed in which this happens means the plant floor is rarely aware that a potential disruption ever occurred. By minimizing plant-floor changes, your plant efficiency improves and rework is reduced.

Visit our website to find out more about how QAD Advanced Scheduling can empower your plant to optimize production agility and resilience.