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SmartSched
An Advanced Scheduling Module for ERP Systems Manufacturing
Contents:
- What is SmartSched?
- Hour Based Resolution
- Minute Based Resolution
- Data Checking Utility
- Seamless Integration
- Request Information
What is
SmartSched?
SmartSched is an advanced finite scheduling system module that interfaces seamlessly with host ERP/MRP Manufacturing systems. Both our SmartSched and SmartBoard modules can as be added as OCX (Microsoft ActiveX) controls to any Manufacturing ERP/MRP system, which can access the Microsoft NT/2000 server or Windows 95/98/2000 client platforms. SmartSched delivers powerful shop finite capacity requirements scheduling. Now you can have affordable finite scheduling to meet the most demanding manufacturing production processes. SmartSched recognizes a variety of scheduling rules, including a user-defined rule.
SmartSched comes as three cumulative modules, each adding more scheduling flexibility and functionality to the prior module.
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SmartSched improves finite scheduling by fully loading machines with no gaps of un-used capacity. SmartSched schedules all capacity to the minute, which gives fully scheduled work-loads, and more accurately reflects estimated order finish dates. SmartSched queues all open orders at their current work centers. Operations are scheduled in the "schedule-rule" sequence selected by the user.
SmartSched offers 12 dispatching rules such as due-date, priority, slack, and critical ratio. The SmartSched scheduling technique reduces variability of shop lead times, by recognizing the competing demands of each operation for each resource on each scheduling decision. We call this method "Operation Based" scheduling. By dynamically simulating order queuing behavior, a more realistic duplication of events can be studied, and the effectiveness of various scheduling rules can be compared. SmartSched's Operation Based method tends to fully load bottlenecks, never missing even a minute of available capacity in the bottlenecks.
Job-by-job ("Job Based") scheduling systems schedule order by order, which first blocks out capacity for all the operations of the current order, then the next order is scheduled. The latter scheduling system creates a very short shop cycle for the first few orders, and the last orders scheduled tend to have much long cycle times, because they have to be scheduled around the "patch-quilt" pattern of un-used capacity left over from scheduling the first jobs.
Hour Based Resolution
SmartSched supports "minute-based resolution". This means that SmartSched assigns the correct number of minutes to each scheduled operation. Before you conclude that minute-resolution is 'overly precise' for your shop, and that you merely require accuracy to the hour, please read this section carefully.
Finite scheduling systems that use "hour-based resolution" assign time-blocks in whole hours to each operation. In most shops, operations typically take only 5, 10 , 15, up to minutes. A scheduling system that used "hour-based" resolution means that an entire hour is allocated, regardless of the actual task duration. If an operation is very short, such as 5 minutes, this means that 55 minutes of capacity are blocked out and not available for use by any other operations. More typically, under-loading error can be very high when the average operation time is 30 minutes or less.
When a series of operations are scheduled like this, the order is obviously going to finish later, than the shop is truly capable of performing. Multiply this inaccuracy by the total number of orders in your shop. Perhaps now you understand how Hour Based Resolution (HBR) under loads the shop.
The first consequence of this error is to "under-load" the capacity in the shop. This implies labor is being given excess "slop-time" in the shop to get work out. The production standards created by your industrial engineering team are not being followed by the scheduling system. The shop is not being loaded to its true capacity.
The second consequence of an under-loading error is that the MRP Planning report, which is being used to guide purchase orders, can easily lead purchasing to buy materials with timing that is not tied to the correct operation dates in the shop. If the shop is under-loaded, then purchasing will give delivery requirements to your vendors that are too far into the future. In other words, this error can leads directly to systematic inventory stock-out conditions. The shop will not starved for materials and will not be able to make products in time to meet your own delivery promise dates.
If you have long operations, the problem is less severe, but it doesn't ever go away completely. Even if operations were averaged 7.5 hours, the 30 minutes of "round-up" error represents a loss of 6 percent of shop capacity, which most shop owners would consider unacceptable. In an order-driven environment, the loss of planned capacity over the entire schedule purchased-material delivery dates to be delivered too late relative to what the shop can actually perform. This can lead to material stock-outs, inefficient order juggling, a stop and start environment, and missed completion dates.
The only case where "hour-based resolution" is entirely accurate, is where operations must be performed in blocks of whole hours. Few if any shops meet this situation.
Minute Based Resolution
How does Minute Based Resolution differ?Some MRP/ERP systems, if they have a finite scheduling system, block out capacity in whole number of hours needed to finish a given operation. We call this Hour-Based Resolution (HBR) Scheduling. As another example, consider three consecutive operations which require 30, 75, and 315 minutes respectively. This is a total of 420 minutes, or 7 hours of work. HBR will schedule blocks of 1, 2 and 6 hours respectively, a total of 9 hours. Two(2) of the 9 hours are blocked out and actually un-used in the schedule. The HBR scheduler does not let any operation use those blocks of time.
A scheduling system that uses Minute Based Resolution (such as SmartSched), blocks out exactly 420 minutes of time for 420 minutes of work (7 hours, not 9).
If most operations are relatively long (e.g. 50 hours), the round-up error of HBR tends to be small (about 1 percent). If an operation 15.5 hours, the HBR scheduler will block out 16 hours leading to a under-load error of 30 minutes, about 3%. On the other hand, if a shop's typical operation takes only 30 minutes, the underload error is also 30 minutes (100% error), and the a loss of planned capacity of 50%. If an operation lasts only 15-minutes, the round-up error is 45 minutes. This error is 300% of the operation time, and 75% of the scheduled capacity time.
But today's shops are striving today for ever shorter operation times. A scheduling method that does not fully utilize available capacity is struggling against the tide of the current movement to reduce operation time. Industrial engineers consider that any factor contributes just 3-5% to lost capacity is significant.
If a production plan builds excess capacity into the plan, it is unlikely that shop management will trust the computer schedule. Building excess capacity into the schedule invites 'apparent slowdowns' on the shop floor, as soon as labor sees that the work load looks light for the day. When the expectations for shop output are lowered, the expectations tend to become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Additional side effects can also start to happen. For example, with excess capacity in the plan, "available to promise" calculations can lead you to quote a non-competitive delivery date, possibly causing you to lose a bid, when in fact you could have delivered by the required customer request date. The order (and possibly the future business of that customer), can be too easily stolen away by competitors.
Another side effect of excess built-in capacity, is that purchasing will now buy material for delivery too far into the future. Materials will run short, and tend to be delivered too late to keep work moving smoothly through the shop. This problem now breeds inefficient stop-and-start operations. Materials delivered late lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy of reduced utilization and ever-declining on-time performance.
This is why Minute Based Resolution (MBR) is considered an essential and important feature of SmartSched.
Data Checking Utility
This new utility lets users quickly isolate data consistency problems the user may have inadvertently created in their ERP/MRP data sets. Data problems can occur and go unremedied over time due to typical real-life events such as system crashes, freeze-ups, programming oversights, all of which can introduce inconsistencies, incomplete data, duplicate records, orphaned data, etc. But SmartSched and SmartBoard both assume that you provide a clean data set, and they proceed to check the data provided from the host ERP/MRP system. So if a user's data set contains duplicate records for the same machine, route steps without a matching work order, or route steps that refer to a non-existent machines, problems like these can prevent SmartSched (or SmartBoard) from working. The SmartSched Data Checking Utility helps you do this.
Seamless Integration
SmartSched queries your current Host ERP/MRP system for production data. The queries can be established as standards provided within the host ERP/MRP system, or can be typically developed and verified by a qualified database installer within a few days. SmartSched has a seamless snapshot of the host database shop data, which assures that current data is used by SmartSched. In addition, SmartSched can typically be called direct from a Windows based Manufacturing system, without any need to launch an separate scheduling program.
In conclusion, SmartSched OCX is the advanced precision finite scheduling system you've been waiting to interface to your Manufacturing System.
