Software for Small Manufacturers

Where manufacturers differ from each other

Two manufacturers of similar size in adjacent sectors schedule production completely differently, because their constraints differ: a bottleneck machine, a curing time, an operator certification, a tooling changeover cost.

That is why generic scheduling modules disappoint. They model a factory in general, and your factory has three specific rules that decide everything.

Scheduling, the part worth building

• The real constraint modelled explicitly — usually one machine or one skill
• Changeover cost, which drives batching decisions
• Curing, drying, setting and other fixed waits
• Operator certifications, so nobody is scheduled to a machine they cannot run
• Material availability, checked against actual stock rather than an assumption

Every manufacturer we have worked with had a scheduling rule the planner knew and no system captured. That rule is the project.

Shop-floor capture

Production data is captured on paper and typed in later, or not captured at all. Same-day capture changes what management can see and dramatically improves the scheduling that depends on it.

1. Job start and finish, scanned rather than typed
2. Quantity produced and scrapped, with a reason code
3. Downtime with a cause, which is where improvement comes from
4. Material consumed, so stock stays accurate
5. Quality checks recorded at the point of inspection

Ruggedised tablets or scanners on the floor, with an interface that works in gloves and does not require typing. If it needs a keyboard it will not be used.

Traceability

Regulated sectors require batch and lot traceability; increasingly customers require it regardless. Retrofitting it is much harder than designing it in.

• Every batch linked to the raw material lots it consumed
• Every despatch linked to the batches it contained
• A recall answerable in minutes rather than days
• Certificates of conformity generated from the data

What to buy

Frequently asked questions