The whiteboard in the planning office
The production planner has a whiteboard with a column for each machine: the flexo folder-gluer, the die-cutter, the litho press and the folder-gluer for cartons. Magnets with job numbers are moved around several times a day. The MIS has the jobs, but its schedule view is not trusted, so the board is the real plan.
At 10am the board supplier says Tuesday's sheets will now arrive on Wednesday. The planner moves one magnet and then spends an hour working out what else needs to move, which operators to tell and which customers will now be late.
Jobs depend on things the board cannot show
A packaging job is a chain of operations, printing then die-cutting then gluing, each on a different machine with its own make-ready time. Each operation can only start when its materials and tooling are there and the artwork is approved. A whiteboard shows the order of jobs but none of the dependencies, so every change is worked through in the planner's head.
- Each job passes through several machines in sequence.
- Board, plates, formes and approval must all be ready first.
- Make-ready times depend on what ran before.
- Changes on one machine ripple to the others.
- The MIS schedule and the whiteboard disagree.
What a fragile schedule costs
Machines stand idle while a job that cannot run is swapped for one that can. Make-ready time grows when jobs are not sequenced by size or colour. Delivery promises are missed because the effect of a delay was not seen early enough. The planner becomes indispensable, and their holidays are a risk to the whole factory.
The scheduler we build
- Jobs are read from your MIS with each operation, the machine it needs, estimated run and make-ready time, and the due date.
- Each operation is shown as a block on a timeline per machine, and dragging a block moves the operations that depend on it.
- Readiness checks run for each operation: board delivered or confirmed, plates and formes available, proof approved. Jobs that are not ready are shown clearly and cannot be placed without an override.
- Sequencing suggestions group jobs that share a forme size, board grade or colour set, so make-ready can be reduced, with the planner deciding.
- When a supplier date or an approval changes, affected jobs are highlighted, with the new earliest finish date and any delivery dates at risk.
- Operators see their machine's queue on a screen at the machine, and progress recorded there updates the schedule.
| Planning problem | On the whiteboard | In the scheduler |
|---|---|---|
| Job not ready to run | Found at the machine | Shown before it is placed |
| Knock on effect of a delay | Worked out in the planner's head | Highlighted automatically |
| Make-ready sequencing | Experience | Suggestions, planner decides |
| Operator queue | Printed list | Live screen at the machine |
| Delivery risk | Noticed late | Shown against due dates |
Planning with the dependencies visible
The planner spends the day making decisions rather than tracking consequences. Jobs reach a machine ready to run. Customers hear about a delay when it happens, not on the due date. And other people in the business, including sales, can see the plan and answer customer questions without walking to the planning office.
Is your plan on a whiteboard?
- The real production plan is a whiteboard or spreadsheet.
- Jobs reach machines before their board or tooling is ready.
- One change takes an hour to work through.
- Delivery dates are missed without early warning.
- Only one person can really run the plan.