Production Planning & Scheduling Systems

Production Planning & Scheduling Systems for a effective manufacturing depends on the ability to convert customer orders and production requirements into realistic, achievable and well-sequenced production plans. When planning is handled through spreadsheets, manual calculations or disconnected systems, production teams often struggle with changing priorities, machine constraints, material shortages, manpower availability, bottlenecks and delivery commitments. Our Production Planning & Scheduling Systems are designed to help manufacturing organisations plan, schedule, monitor and control production through an integrated digital platform. These systems connect customer orders, production requirements, processes, machines, manpower, materials, capacity and delivery dates to create a structured production planning and scheduling environment.

Production Planning vs Production Scheduling

Production planning and production scheduling are closely related but serve different purposes.

A comprehensive production planning and scheduling software system brings both activities together.

Our Production Planning & Scheduling Approach

We design production planning systems around the actual manufacturing environment rather than applying the same scheduling model to every business.

The system can be designed according to:

• Manufacturing process
• Product characteristics
• Production volumes
• Machine availability
• Work-centre structure
• Process routing
• Standard times
• Manpower availability
• Material availability
• Customer priorities
• Delivery commitments
• Production constraints

This enables production schedules to reflect real operating conditions.

Customer Order to Production Schedule

The production planning process can begin with the customer order.

A typical workflow is:  Customer Order → Order Validation → Product & Quantity → Required Delivery Date → Production Requirement → Material Check → Capacity Check → Process Routing → Production Plan → Machine Schedule → Shop-Floor Execution

This creates a structured link between customer commitments and production activities.

Production Requirement Planning

The system can convert customer requirements into production requirements.

Planning can consider:

• Customer order quantity
• Product
• Required delivery date
• Existing stock
• Work-in-progress
• Pending production
• Minimum production quantity
• Batch requirements
• Production lead time
• Existing commitments

This helps determine the actual quantity that needs to be produced.

Capacity Planning

A production schedule is only useful when it is achievable.

Our production scheduling systems can incorporate available manufacturing capacity based on:

• Machines
• Work centres
• Production hours
• Shifts
• Working days
• Machine availability
• Standard operating time
• Planned maintenance
• Existing production commitments

The system can compare required capacity with available capacity and highlight potential overloads.

Machine Loading

Machine loading is an important component of production scheduling.

The system can help planners determine:

• Which jobs are assigned to each machine
• Planned machine hours
• Available machine hours
• Machine utilisation
• Overloaded machines
• Underutilised machines
• Pending jobs
• Production sequence

This provides a visual and structured understanding of machine workload.

Work-Centre Scheduling

Where production consists of multiple work centres, scheduling can be performed at the work-centre level.

For example:

Cutting → Forming → Welding → Machining → Finishing → Inspection → Assembly → Dispatch

Each work centre can have its own:

• Capacity
• Process time
• Queue
• Priority
• Machine availability
• Production sequence

This helps identify where production is accumulating and where additional capacity may be required.

Process Routing

Production scheduling depends on knowing how a product is manufactured.

The system can maintain process routing information such as:

• Operation sequence
• Work centre
• Machine
• Standard time
• Setup time
• Processing time
• Inspection requirement
• Subcontracting operation
• Transfer requirement

This allows production orders to be translated into individual production operations.

Standard Time and Cycle Time

Production scheduling becomes more accurate when operation times are based on reliable standards.

The system can use:

• Standard time
• Cycle time
• Setup time
• Processing time
• Handling time
• Allowances

Where required, standard times can be established through time study, work measurement and industrial engineering analysis.

This helps create more realistic production schedules.

Material Availability & Scheduling

Production cannot proceed if required materials are unavailable.

The planning system can therefore consider:

• Raw material stock
• Component availability
• Purchase orders
• Expected material receipts
• Material shortages
• Reserved stock
• Existing inventory
• Production requirements

Material constraints can be highlighted before jobs are released to the shop floor.

This reduces the risk of scheduling production that cannot actually be executed.

Manpower Availability

Production capacity is not determined only by machines.

The scheduling system can also consider:

• Required manpower
• Available manpower
• Shift allocation
• Skill requirements
• Operator availability
• Absenteeism
• Multi-skilled operators
• Planned leave
• Overtime

This provides a more realistic picture of executable production capacity.

Production Priority Management

Manufacturing environments frequently experience changing priorities.

A customer may request an urgent order, a machine may break down, or a material shortage may affect the original plan.

The system can help planners manage priorities based on:

• Customer priority
• Delivery date
• Order urgency
• Material availability
• Machine availability
• Production stage
• Customer importance
• Existing commitments

This enables production schedules to be revised systematically instead of relying entirely on manual communication.

Bottleneck Identification

A major advantage of a structured scheduling system is improved visibility of bottlenecks.

Potential constraints can include:

• Overloaded machines
• Limited work centres
• Skilled manpower shortages
• Material shortages
• Long setup times
• High processing times
• Quality holds
• Maintenance downtime
• Subcontracting delays

Identifying constraints early allows planners to take corrective action before they become major delivery problems.

Finite Capacity Scheduling

Where required, production scheduling can be based on finite available capacity rather than assuming unlimited resources.

The system can consider actual availability of:

• Machines
• Work centres
• Manpower
• Shifts
• Production hours

Jobs can then be scheduled according to realistic capacity constraints.

This can produce more practical schedules for complex manufacturing environments.

Job Sequencing

The order in which jobs are processed can significantly affect production performance.

Scheduling logic can consider factors such as:

• Delivery date
• Customer priority
• Setup requirements
• Product family
• Material availability
• Process sequence
• Machine availability
• Batch requirements

Appropriate sequencing can reduce unnecessary setup changes, waiting and machine idle time.

Setup & Changeover Considerations

Frequent changeovers can reduce available production time.

A production scheduling system can incorporate:

• Setup time
• Changeover requirements
• Product families
• Tooling requirements
• Material changes
• Machine-specific constraints

Where appropriate, jobs can be sequenced to reduce unnecessary changeovers.

This can improve machine utilisation and effective production capacity.

Work-in-Progress Planning

WIP can significantly affect manufacturing lead time and shop-floor congestion.

A production scheduling system can track:

• Planned WIP
• Actual WIP
• Pending operations
• Completed operations
• Queue quantities
• WIP ageing
• WIP location
• Next operation

This helps planners identify where production is waiting and where flow needs improvement.

Planned vs Actual Production

A production plan is only useful when actual performance is measured against it.

The system can compare:

Planned Production vs Actual Production

Metrics can include:

• Planned quantity
• Actual quantity
• Planned start
• Actual start
• Planned completion
• Actual completion
• Planned hours
• Actual hours
• Planned cycle time
• Actual cycle time
• Planned manpower
• Actual manpower

This creates a continuous feedback mechanism for improving future schedules.

Production Schedule Monitoring

Management can obtain real-time or periodic visibility into:

• Today's production plan
• Pending jobs
• Jobs in progress
• Completed jobs
• Delayed jobs
• Machine loading
• Work-centre loading
• Material shortages
• Capacity constraints
• Delivery risks

This reduces dependency on multiple spreadsheets and manual status reports.

The system can help planners evaluate the impact of changes and revise the production schedule accordingly.

Key Features of Our Production Planning & Scheduling Systems

Depending on requirements, the system can include:

• Customer Order Management
• Production Requirement Planning
• Production Planning
• Production Scheduling
• Process Routing
• BOM Integration
• Capacity Planning
• Machine Loading
• Work-Centre Scheduling
• Manpower Planning
• Material Availability
• Job Sequencing
• Setup & Changeover Planning
• Bottleneck Identification
• Finite Capacity Scheduling
• WIP Monitoring
• Planned vs Actual
• Dynamic Rescheduling
• Production Dashboards
• Management Reports
• ERP Integration
• Inventory Integration
• Shop-Floor Integration
• Mobile/Web Access
• Custom Workflow