Realistic Production Planning Involving Machines, People, and Materials

Machines are available—and yet production is stalling. The employee in charge is absent, the materials are arriving later than planned, or the shift schedule doesn’t work out. Situations like these repeatedly force production managers to make last-minute rescheduling adjustments. Sack EDV-Systeme addresses this challenge with a holistic planning approach that integrates machines, personnel, and materials into a single planning run.

Production planning must take all resources into account

In many companies, production planning is still primarily based on machine capacity. In reality, however, the feasibility of a production order depends on a variety of other factors: different skill sets, vacation schedules, shift patterns, or last-minute staff absences affect the production process just as much as delivery delays or missing materials. If just one of these components is missing, deadlines are thrown off track.

«The demands on production planning have changed significantly in recent years. While machine capacity used to be the primary limiting factor, companies now face additional challenges. A shortage of skilled workers, flexible shift models, and volatile supply chains mean that even though machines are available, a production order still cannot be carried out as planned,» explains Tilmann Sack, Managing Director of Sack EDV-Systeme.

Experienced production planners have always kept many of these dependencies in mind and take them into account intuitively. «However, this only works up to a certain level of complexity. With increasing product variety, shorter lead times, and frequent changes, this knowledge alone will no longer be sufficient,» Tilmann Sack continues.

A holistic approach ensures speed and planning reliability

With proMExS—a Manufacturing Execution System (MES) with integrated Advanced Planning and Scheduling (APS)—Sack EDV-Systeme takes a holistic approach to planning. Instead of treating machines, personnel, and materials as separate entities in distinct systems or planning steps, all information is consolidated into a single planning process. This provides a realistic picture of the actual production situation as early as the detailed planning stage.

Planning managers can determine early on whether an order can be completed as planned under the current conditions. If a machine is available but the required materials have not yet arrived or qualified personnel have not been scheduled, this becomes immediately apparent. Based on this information, orders can be prioritized or rescheduled in a targeted manner before delays occur in production.

If operating conditions change during ongoing operations, there is no need to start the planning process from scratch. Instead, proMExS automatically takes changes—such as a last-minute staff absence or a postponed material delivery date—into account in the next planning run. The system recalculates the production plan and adapts it to the current circumstances. The planning run can either be triggered manually or executed fully automatically at specified intervals. Companies decide for themselves whether newly calculated plans should first be reviewed or automatically adopted.

The result is a production plan that reflects actual conditions on the shop floor, thereby providing a reliable basis for decision-making. Companies improve their on-time delivery rates, avoid unnecessary rescheduling, and make more targeted use of existing capacity. At the same time, they gain greater transparency into their manufacturing operations and can make informed assessments of even short-notice changes.

For more information about proMExS and the solutions offered by Sack EDV-Systeme, visit www.sackedv.com.