Understanding the difference between planning and scheduling software

Planning Manufacturing Operations

Planning is about breaking down a works order into individual operations and defining a logical sequence of events that will deliver a completed product. Part of this is understanding and managing the dependencies between those events and resources. So planning is effectively defining what is to be done and how.

Scheduling Manufacturing Operations

Scheduling is the sequencing, factoring in of constraints and priorities to apply a chronological order to the plan. It assigns operations to a resource, so it can be made available when needed. It synchronises with upstream and downstream steps to include changes so you can monitor and minimises the impact. Effectively it provides specificity and targets to the plan.

The Benefits

Advanced planning and scheduling helps you to:

Know the status and priority of each works order on the shop floor.
Know each operation in the manufacturing process.
Know which machines or resources are required for each works order.
Know when the machines or resources are required and when they will be available.
Know the timings and delays between operations for more realistic production lead times.

Planning and scheduling is the most effective way of balancing revenues, customers satisfaction and operational performance. As such the Seiki Scheduler is a strategic decision support tool and as a graphical solution it’s easy to share the insight it provides with your whole team.

Planning Production Orders

Whether the data has been imported from your ERP or business management system or you are manually creating orders directly in the Scheduler, the comprehensive tools within the Production Orders modules allows you to:

Manage required delivery dates and quantities
Control when Works Orders are released (made active) for scheduling
Create template part records that contain works order routing details and master operation scheduling information
Assign operations to automatic resource distribution groups
Apply prioritisation to be used in scheduling to help avoid a critical job from running late
Classify Works Orders with a Production Type so that you can easily filter and highlight them on the planning board
Define kits of parts or assemblies, and manage their operation interdependencies

Scheduling Manufacturing Operations

As a finite capacity scheduling tool, the Scheduler takes the time and comlexity out of scheduling your workload.

Define your capacity model with company calendars and weekplans
Manage resources and adjust their individual workspeed (efficiency) factor
Choose from and apply automated scheduling algorithms
Generate and compare as many what-if scenarios as you need to get the best outcome
Dynamically adjust your capacity model in response to real events and see instantly see the impact across the entire workload
See the deviation from required delivery dates through graphical indicators and analysis screens
See the live status of operations via data fedback from the Seiki AIR WIP Booking module or your existing Shop Floor Data Capture solution

The difference between planning and scheduling

Planning Manufacturing Operations

Scheduling Manufacturing Operations

A single, powerful, easy to use solution

The Benefits

Planning Production Orders

Scheduling Manufacturing Operations

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