And some more sites

We're getting close to the end of the survey of good sites that deal with Production Scheduling. There are two more entries for today.

The first is called Master Production Scheduling. There are quite a few articles here. Some of them are: SaaS (Software as a Service), Open Source ROI, and web-based scheduling. There are also links to directories, portals, and some providers.

The other site is Manufacturing Scheduling. Like the site above, there's an article on ROI. Others involve optimizing your planning time and a brief overview of the benefits of a scheduling system.

Still more Scheduling sites to look at

What a way to start the week! Here are a couple more good sites to look at about Scheduling. The first one has some nice info about producing a realistic manufacturing schedule. Other articles look at the differences that may occur between a scheduling system used for Production and one used for R & D.

The other one for today has a couple of articles on Constraint Based scheduling. There is also a good page about Advanced Planning Software, as well as some dealing with Artificial Intelligence.

That's about all for now. There are still a few more that I should mention, so those will have to be saved for a future date.

Follow-up with some more good Production Scheduleing Sites

This is just a follow-up post from yesterday with a couple more nice sites dealing with Production Scheduling software. The first one, Capacity Planning, has some nice articles about Artifical Intelligence (AI) and Return On Investment (ROI).

The other one is called Expert Solutions. Some of its articles deal with interesting subject matter like Reducing Carbon Emissions and using Browser based systems to implement agile software solutions.

Production Scheduling Systems

Throughout the years, we've developed quite a lot of varied Production Scheduling Systems, some using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to further increase the system's productivity. Our range of clients has also been quite broad, going from state and national Government contracts, to TeleCom, to AeroSpace, to Stone Counter shops, to a manufacturer of custom towels.

One of the newer ones deals with Capa (Capable to promise capacity planning solutions). Check the site out. It has lots of new, interesting info for those of us who are looking to the future of Production Planning Systems and Production Planning Software.

Another neat site is one that deals with all aspect of these planning solutions. This site provides an overview with good, basic information.

Manufacturing Resource Planning (MRP)

Today's blog will briefly introduce the topic of Manufacturing Resource Planning. More detailed discussions will be included in future blogs.

MRP is defined by APICS (The Association for Operations Management, formerly known as the American Production and Inventory Control Society) as a method for the effective planning of all resources of a manufacturing company.

Ideally, the plan should address operational planning in terms of units (how many do we need) and financial planning in terms of dollars (how much will it cost). To do this it needs to answer questions such as:

• Are there enough resources (labor, machines, machine-hours, and cash) to meet the material requirements plan?
• Is there enough capacity, both overall and at each individual Work Center?

The ultimate output of this production plan will be the finished goods that are needed. In order to get to that state, a schedule of requirements for the subassemblies, the component parts, and the raw materials needed to produce those finished goods, and to produce them according to a specific time frame, is needed.

MRP’s major benefits should be:

• an increase in productivity;
• the removal of inefficiencies, or at least a major reduction in them;
• and an increase in customer responsiveness and service.

Simply put, MRP systems ask four questions:

• What is needed?
• Wow much is needed?
• When is it needed?
• How can I best use my resouces to meet the answers to the previous 3 questions?

MRP can be a semi stand-alone system, or it can be part of the larger ERP, and is directly connected to Master Production Scheduling (MPS) and Distribution Requirements Planning (DRP).

This page has a little more information about MRP: things to look for in an MRP system, other systems that tie in with an MRP system, and lots of other links.

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Have a great weekend. See you all next week.

Hal Hamer

New ERP Sites

I ran across a couple of new manufacturing ERP sites that look quite promising. I think that they'll soon have a lot of very good content. The first one is http://erp-software-solutions.com/. It already has a good section of "News and Views".
The other site is about agile manufacturing systems. And since that's the title of this blog, it's gotta be good. There's not a lot of content there yet, but I'm sure that there will be more in a little while.

Bar Coding

Today we're working on creating a "Traveller" or "Follower" for a part as it goes through its manufacturing/production process. This "Traveller" is a sheet of paper which will accompany the part to each of the steps/processes it ends up going through. The shop floor can be quite an environmentally unfriendly place for PCs. For instance there is usually a lot of dust which, over time, can affect the cooling fan's ability to cool the PC, thus ultimately leading to its failure. In even more severe environments, even Thin Client systems may not be appropriate. At Princeton Tools, to avoid these problems, they're going to use bar code scanners for their input.
They do custom work on aircraft engine blades and each part that comes into their shop will have aindividual 'shipping list' from the supplier that already has a bar code on it. They'll scan this piece into their ERP production system and then print out the "Traveller", which will have a bar code for each of the processes that this particular part needs to go through. We're going to put a bar code on the "Traveller" for each one of these steps.
While I've worked with bar codes before, I've never actually created the bar code, so this'll be a fun new learning experience for me.

Why Choose Software-as-a-Service ERP Software?

One of the key advantages of choosing Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) is that companies can save considerable amounts of money by not having to provide the on-premise IT support infrastructure. For a monthly fee companies can get the software they need much faster than outright purchasing it. Many of these trends are evident in the continued growth of companies choosing SaaS ERP systems. There is a much less upfront expense and more flexibility in licensing terms, as far as the customers not buying more licenses than they actually need, when choosing a SaaS ERP system that's right for them.

The ease of getting the software you need now at the price you can afford is one of the many advantages of choosing your SaaS. However, one thing to keep in mind when considering if a SaaS ERP system is right for you is that the ongoing monthly expense never ends and you don't ever own the software. To many companies, never actually owning the software isn't a problem because they are getting what they need on a pay-as-you-go-basis without being locked into a long-term agreement.

Some of the benefits of SaaS

• Easy use and set-up


• Predictable monthly ongoing expense


• Mobility in it web-based applications


• The vendor manages the servers, backs up the data and updates the application for customers


• Less upfront costs and many times long-term as well. Thin client systems can drastically reduce the TCO (Total Cost of Ownership).

Although, SaaS might not be the solution for every business dilemma, when properly chosen it can allow for companies to save time, money and grief. When considering a SaaS ERP system do your homework to make sure that the company that you choose can provide your company with what it needs for optimum usability. Some early proven leaders in providing SaaS are Tuppas Software and Salesforce.


Copyright 2008
Written by Hal Hamer