Purpose Of Production Scheduling
Definition of Production Scheduling
The definition of production scheduling is the planning of resources, processes, and raw materials that go into the production cycle. If done right, product scheduling results in high-level responsiveness and the ability to leverage opportunities and arrest problems before they escalate.
Purpose of a Production Schedule
Efficiency in resource utilization and aligning production with demand are the hallmarks of profitable manufacturing. Without product scheduling, the manufacturing environment can be chaotic and unprofitable.
Manufacturers need product scheduling to allocate and properly utilize resources, meet customer needs and achieve company objectives.
A well thought out production schedule:
Streamlines Business-Wide Operations
Production schedules can act as the canonical form of communication across the organization for all things manufacturing. This helps to smooth out operations and synchronize resource utilization (labor, equipment, and materials) per task orders.
Enhances Capacity Planning
A product schedule makes the task of planning production capacity and resource availability easy to meet the supply chain’s demands. Manufacturers gain high-level insight into when to scale, reduce, mitigate risk and improve design capacity within a specified period.
Leads to Better Decision Making
Risk evaluation and what-if analyses can be drawn from the production plan to prepare for unforeseen scenarios. What if orders suddenly spike today? What if machine A breaks down or client B needs a reschedule? Production scheduling provides clarity on these and similar questions.
Eliminates Wastage
Load leveling is reducing waste and boosting productivity by eliminating the non-value elements of the process cycle. Product scheduling is the key to removing waste items in the production cycle. Results are improved due to production speed, less inventory, and reduced production costs. Bottlenecks arise from every angle when manufacturers fail to design and implement the right production schedules.
Leveraging a production scheduling solution helps break down all processes into manageable pieces to save time and optimize production flow.
The Production Scheduling Process Includes:
1. Production Planning
The foundational element to every production schedule is production planning. You need charts, budgets, and presentations that layout your production goals, resources, and steps.
2. Process Mapping
This is called production routing, and it involves determining the manufacturing path or process for your product. The route is the entire journey from raw materials to finished products. This plan helps to identify the most efficient and economical operation sequence in the production process.
3. Production scheduling
Production scheduling involves allocating resources, equipment, and time to every facet of the production cycle. This plan informs the plant what to make, when to make it, which teams are on point and which equipment to use.
4. Dispatching
This is assigning jobs to machines and equipment. It is a process that entails releasing orders and other manufacturing instructions based on the pre-planned times and sequence of operations in route sheets.
5. Implementation
The last bit of production scheduling is the execution of the created plan. The plan must be comprehensively communicated, and teams must collaborate to ensure plans are followed to deliver orders on time.
Production scheduling is not an easy feat. If the plan is not comprehensive or accurate costly errors are bound to occur in the production process. Optessa is an Advanced Planning and Scheduling Software (APS) that can help you get every element right in production scheduling. The system boasts the cutting-edge Fast Optimization Technology that makes it easy and fast to create highly accurate plans.
A laissez-faire production environment leads to high production costs, stress delays, and unfulfilled orders. Stay on top with your floor management.
