Effective planning and close monitoring of business processes are priorities for manufacturing companies. Flexible customer service, observing deadlines, optimal use of plant capacities and minimizing production-related costs often require objectives and decisions that contradict one another. Accordingly, production-related processes have become so complex that Excel tables provide only a limited, slow and obsolete solution for their management.
The more information is available for decision-makers and the more transparent and structured it is, the easier it is to make optimal decisions, and as a result customer demand can be satisfied, with the lowest possible cost, using the company’s resources.
With on-PLAN, taking into consideration the finite capacities of production equipment, machine groups, machinery and instruments, and the availability of human resources, production tasks can be planned optimally, displayed visually, and modified simply and spectacularly. As a result, it can be checked any time, if orders are on schedule and will they be completed by the deadline.
Detailed information can be gained on every activity in the plant through the interactive, graphic user interface, so current and relevant data are available to decision makers. On-PLAN is more than just a useful tool - with on-PLAN you can plan production effortlessly.
Fine programming simply
No matter how perfect a program, the forecasts, the scheduling or the production planning might be, there are always unforeseen, ad hoc events that necessitate flexible and fast intervention. Taking a new order or modifying existing orders has an immediate effect on scheduling, which means that these events can be effectively managed by fine programming.
With fine programming we can easily record a machine’s fallout from production, tool failure, plant shutdown and maintenance tasks and taking into account all of these new circumstances, we modify the current scheduling accordingly. The scheduling modified by on-PLAN can be automatically reloaded into the ERP system, where further business processes are tracked, thus fitting production planning into the supply chain and business process management in a closed way.
Visuality facilitating planning
On-PLAN’s display is clear and focuses on visual effect, thereby becoming a tool that actively facilitates the planner’s work. When developing the structure of production planning, one of the primary goals was making all the necessary information directly available why keeping a simple look. The warnings, limitations and shortcomings in the current plan direct the planner’s attention to the critical area with the help of color-coding, thus ensuring user-friendly, simple handling.
Comprehensive functionality
The features available on the on-PLAN interface fully satisfy all needs related to production planning and are further complemented by the following options exclusively available in on-PLAN:
- automatically generated link between related production orders,
- strict prioritizing,
- modifiable scheduling algorithms,
- access management organized by sections of planning.
Scheduling with on-PLAN
The primary solution is linearization, through which on-PLAN schedules the production task derived from need and supply data managed by the ERP solution, taking into consideration the previously defined priorities. However, situations may arise where fine programming is needed. The option of manual planning production tasks can be simply scheduled into open slots with a computer mouse. If manual modifications should cause any conflict, a warning message appears on screen and the modification is blocked.
Technology: server-client mode
The planning interface works in a server-client more, which means that the client application installed for the planner automatically updates data from the server. The client application is responsible for displaying information and keeping contact, but tasks requiring larger scale calculations run on a different server in the interest of resource optimization. The planning interface is also suitable for maintaining production-related data, such as the capacity of each machine per shift or additional information on further resources.
