INTELLIGENT BRANDS // Software for Business
“This fire-fighting
culture is inefficient and
results in unproductive
time and efforts, which
would be better used
to focus on analysing
additional scenarios and
making better decisions.”
improved schedule looks out weeks or months into the
future and brings enormous benefits, including the ability
to identify and resolve issues well in advance before they
become critical problems.
Decision support software, such as production scheduling
applications, deal with key questions, including “what will
happen or what must happen in the future?” Determining
these situation variables is accomplished using “what-if”
scenario analysis performed by the scheduler.
It is the scheduler that then applies their judgement on
the findings and selects the best course of action to take.
When a disruption occurs, the scheduler is frequently
drawn into coping with emergencies and attempting to
correct the problem in hand without fully considering the
complete economic and operational consequences of the
corrective measures.
This fire-fighting culture is inefficient and results in
unproductive time and efforts, which would be better used
to focus on analysing additional scenarios and making
better decisions.
Faster and smarter scheduling
The goal of planning is to determine “what / where / when
/ how to supply” and “which demands to meet” within
the constraints of a manufacturer’s supply capabilities.
Monthly production targets established by planners are
handed over to schedulers who work on determining the
detailed sequence of production and the synchronisation
between production stages to deliver feasible material
flow and efficient production within the constraints of a
manufacturer’s production capabilities.
Advanced scheduling tools provide an intuitive user interface
that bridges the gap in usability and skills to support
schedulers who can perform ‘what-if’ scenarios and easily
make use of optimisation methods to create schedules.
Optimised schedules help make the most of available
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production capacity, increasing throughput from the plant
facilities whilst ensuring high levels of customer service.
Now companies can navigate supply chain complexity
and respond faster to changing market demands and
unforeseen events with a powerful and easy to use solution.
AspenTech’s supply chain management suite comes
with process industry templates designed for rapid and
low risk deployments. Aspen Plant Scheduler, a product
within the unified planning and scheduling suite, is fully
configurable to model unique supply chain/manufacturing
characteristics and constraints and fully upgradable.
Scalable and flexible optimisation technologies can be
employed to create optimal plans and schedules.
Aspen Plant Scheduler can be integrated with Enterprise
Resource Planning (ERP) systems, Manufacturing Execution
Systems (MES) and other, possibly in-house, systems to
maintain the schedule in alignment with the most up-to-date
information on customer orders, forecasts, stock transfer
orders, raw material receipts and production activities.
Manufacturers who have deployed Aspen Plant Scheduler
experience significant benefits in the areas of increased
throughput, reduced transition and setup costs,
reduced inventories and the reduction of expediting
costs. Schedulers report significant time savings and
productivity gains compared to traditional spreadsheet
based approaches.
Optimising customer service
Process manufacturers are under tremendous pressure
to maximise productivity from their plant assets. Today’s
volatile market environment and complex production
processes require advanced plant scheduling software
solutions to react quickly to production upsets and
demand changes.
An intuitive scheduling tool simplifies the user experience
and streamlines workflows to provide easy access to vital
plant data, which schedulers need to achieve process
manufacturers’ plans.
Unlike less powerful solutions, such as Excel, advanced
scheduling tools open a world of opportunities for
schedulers to realise numerous benefits, including
reduction in manufacturing costs, reduction of inventory
levels, better responsiveness to operational problems and
better customer service.
Scheduling is the linchpin to customer satisfaction. This
vital function provides process manufacturers with the
ability to efficiently manage their production assets.
Viewing the role of scheduling with greater importance is
the first step in closing the likely gap between the sales and
operations planning (S&OP) process and manufacturing
execution processes. ¡
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