VISUAL ERP Scheduling

Patented scheduling capabilities that gives you power that no other standard VISUAL ERP system can. Period.

The ability to Increase throughput without increasing overhead.

Balance the shop floor so that you lessen manufacturing lead time and increase on time deliveries and customer satisfaction. Experiment with real time simulations so can forecast, uncover and correct problems before they are problems. Calculate profitability impact to the bottom line of each scenario without leaving your desk.

You wish you could deliver on-time. You know it only takes you a few days to actually manufacture your product when you get the time on the resources out on the shop floor required to make it. But you’re still late on the 8-week lead-time that you quoted to your customer. If only you could get caught up.

Not sure what your potential is for improving your leadtime and on-time delivery to your customers? Call us now, and we’ll ask you two simple questions that could unlock a goldmine of opportunity within your company. In our experience, most companies have the potential to significantly cut their lead-times, WIP, and raise on-time delivery performance upwards of 90 – 95% or better. Call us now, we believe it could apply to you!

Introducing VISUAL ERP Lean Scheduling:

Reduce WIP by managing when material gets sent out to the shop floor. Stop releasing material that you know won’t get worked on for weeks, it’s clogging up WIP and only confusing the true priorities of what really needs to get done.
Implement a priority system that optimizes what really needs to be worked immediately at each resource center (person, machine, cell, etc.) . Hint – it’s not due date.
Always plan and execute to have the right amount of each product at all levels – finished product, subassemblies, and raw purchased material – based upon true customer demand and desired customer service levels.

“The Goal” by Dr. Eli Goldratt

If you have read “The Goal”, then you already know how VISUAL ERP can increase throughput without increasing overhead.

It contains significantly profound concepts about how to improve your throughput.

What’s throughput? It’s a financial measurement whereby any unit increase in throughput goes right to the bottom line.

Looking to cut manufacturing costs, utilize your resources more efficiently, and decrease your unit product cost? That’s very prudent, frugal thinking. But be careful. Cuts in material or labor costs or time may have a detrimental effect on your product quality. And there’s always a limit to how much you can cut costs (down to $0). Conversely, there is infinite potential to increases in throughput! How much additional throughput would it take to double or even triple your company’s profits? Probably not much. Work out the math and learn the potential of focusing on Throughput, and the perils of focusing too much on decreasing unit product cost here:

Why do we start a page about Scheduling with topics on Throughput and Cost Accounting? Because that should be the purpose of Scheduling, not just to provide a dispatch list to the shopfloor, but a dispatch list that was created with maximizing your company’s throughput in mind. Dare we say it? That makes you the most money!

Experience not just being able to deliver on-time, but having excess capacity, moving the bottle neck back to sales to get more orders, or being able to go to your customers and prospects with an unrefusable offer of being able to deliver in ½ the time of your competitors, but at a higher price – the premium for faster, more reliable delivery – or you pay a penalty.

VISUAL ERP’s Patented Finite Scheduling Tools

Patented scheduling capabilities gives you power that no other standard VISUAL ERP system can. period. Imagine having: Advanced Planning & Scheduling System (APS) , Achievable Production Schedules, Schedule Resources, Materials AND Outside Processes, Bottleneck Management and What-If Modelling. VISUAL Enterprise was the first ERP system to feature patented concurrent scheduling. This component allows each work order to be scheduled specifying a set of operations to be performed, using a plurality of resources and materials. The assigned resource capacities, as well as start and finish times, are displayed in an easy to use Graphical User Interface.

By default, the scheduler will backward schedule from the customer request date/promise date, and layer in all operations (taking into consideration all resources i.e. material, staffing, tooling, fixtures, etc.). If the date requested is not possible (should have started the job sooner), then the schedule is “forced forward” to calculate the soonest “capable to promise” date. Unlimited Simulation Comparisons (Adhoc or Templates) gives you a competitive advantage, and allows you to keep your customers satisfied.

VISUAL ERP Scheduling gives you:

Patented Concurrent Resource and Material Scheduling
Forward. Backward, Finite & Infinite Scheduling
Resource and Material Bottleneck/Constraint Identification
What-If Schedule Comparisons & Throughput Analysis
Unlimited Simulation Comparisons
Achievable Production Schedules
Higher Customer Satisfaction Levels

Schedule Audit capability showing you exactly how and why the system scheduled your jobs the way it did. No “black box” algorithms that leave you scratching your head!

Manage bottlenecks, create workable schedules, deliver quality products to your customers and bring more money to your bottom line.

The VISUAL ERP ThroughPut Window

The VISUAL ERP Throughput Window is your crystal ball to higher profits. It shows you not just what your bottlenecks and constraints (material, people, machines, tooling, workcenters, cells, etc) are today, but what and when they WILL BE in the future!

Dr. Eli Goldratt describes Throughput as: Total revenue for a period of time minus the cost of materials and outside resources.

The advantage of this measuring tool is to calculate which scenario will provide the highest impact to the company. Which scenario will result in the maximum throughput, without adding costs or over-head.

Utilizing the standard functionality in the Scheduling Window, you create the “what-if” schedule that will resolve the constraints, and then see the difference between the scenarios – How many days of “lateness” across all my future customer order deliveries will that resolve? i.e., how much better will my customer service level be if we implement the “what-if” schedule? How much more money will removing the constraints and alleviating the bottlenecks add to the company’s bottom-line? Not satisfied? Want to do even better?? Go see what the “new” bottlenecks are now in the “what-if” schedule and do it again to continuously improve your business performance and customer satisfaction levels to your customers

Theory of Constraints based VISUAL ERP Lean Scheduling

Streamlined Processes for Improved Productivity

In today’s increasingly competitive marketplace, it’s clear that the majority of manufacturers are focusing on the principles of lean manufacturing to reduce inventory levels, cut lead times, and improve on-time delivery performance. To that end, Synergy offers industry leading, “pull” based Lean Scheduling solutions that allow manufacturers to streamline their operations and significantly increase productivity and profitability —VISUAL ERP Easy Lean and DDMRP.

VISUAL ERP Lean Scheduling

To win new customers and increase sales today you have to compete on lead times, delivery and price—a difficult task made more difficult by the regular chaos that comes with unexpected occurrences like machine breakdowns and customer emergencies. Lean Scheduling is a fast-implementing solution that supports the principles of Lean Manufacturing. It’s a scheduling method that delivers significant results within 30-90 days.

By making a few small changes to your traditional business practices and by incorporating pull-oriented scheduling techniques you can gain visibility that allows you to make better decisions, release inventory at optimal times, and smooth production flow. Lean Scheduling helps you avoid chaotic situations on the production floor, take on increased business, and drive more money to your bottom line.

Whether you operate as a make-to-order or make-to-stock company, VISUAL ERP Lean Scheduling protects your on-time deliveries by providing the critical information you need to shorten lead times, overcome market constraints and increase business and profits. Unlike traditional scheduling solutions, the system focuses on pulling materials through the shop, which helps keep your inventory levels low and your ability to respond to customers high.

By incorporating shipping and inventory buffers into scheduling, the system allows you to protect both customer due dates and constraint resource schedules, as well as protect the availability of raw materials, purchased parts, common subassemblies, replacement parts and finished goods.

There are two simple questions that will reveal the potential of better scheduling in your plant(s). Contact us today to find out how.

Protection

Using buffers for scheduling, you can protect all aspects of your business:

Pre-Production—Reduce delays in production by maintaining 100% availability of raw materials and purchased parts
Semi-Finished Goods—Reduce delays in production and time-to-customer by maintaining 100% availability of partially finished components and replacement parts
Finished Goods—Achieve zero stockouts on catalog items and increase selling opportunities by optimizing your inventory investment while maximizing your profits

Lean Scheduling Benefits

Protect your ability to deliver on time—every time.
Avoid wasting capacity by building to demand rather than forecast.
Reduce lead times sufficiently and make-to-order vs. make-to stock.
Gain unparalleled visibility into materials and production.
Respond quickly to the market.
Avoid stock-outs and increase up selling.
Quote shorter lead times with confidence.