Do your schedules help you to deliver on time?
The effectiveness of a production schedule has a massive
effect on a business' ability to deliver its products and services on time. The
job of the production scheduler can also seem to be incredibly complicated when
you look into it.
They're your rules
Thankfully by creating a number of tasks around the
scheduling function / role you can make life easier for the person doing the
job, and increase the performance of the business at the same time.
One noticeable issue that causes the scheduling role to be
so difficult is the level of adjustments that take place during the life of the
schedule.
The Butterfly Effect
A plethora of tiny changes can massively increase the amount of work
the scheduler has to do. This points us in the direction of understanding how
our business system works and how it can be adjusted to reduce the amount of
changes that take place on a day to day basis. Some tips to consider include:
- Define your planning horizons - how much detail
do you need for how far ahead?
- Ensure that your capacity tools are being used
when acknowledging delivery dates.
- Get a handle on the variables that affect the
performance of the business. This could be utilisation, availability, scheduled
maintenance etc..
- Organise regular communications with everyone
involved with delivering the schedule (such as a start of shift meeting) so
that everyone understands what they need to produce during their time at work.
- Find ways for technology (e.g. ERP systems) to
make life easier for you to manage the schedules. This could include MRPII
approaches, exception reporting, shop floor data capture etc..
We need to make it simpler
Scheduling can become incredibly complicated when you start
chasing arrears and have to manage the entire order book slipping backwards.
The challenge is also great when you have a very complicated process to deliver
your products or services. In both cases creating some routines and some rules
can help you to simplify the task at hand.
Find out more
If you want know how we can help
your business then please call us on 0191 4283386, or use the contact form below.
