Resources

Have you noticed that, for some products, you just never seem to reach your forecast accuracy objectives? Have you had to relentlessly explain to your management that you can’t do better? Let us make your day: it’s not your fault. It really isn’t. Here, the metric is to blame.

Many ERP systems claim to have integrated planning capabilities. More often than not, they provide only the most basic functionalities, which don't meet the needs of your planners. Result: Your production planners run their process in Excel spreadsheets. Sounds familiar?

Forward scheduling starts a new task on a workstation as soon as the previous one is finished. Backward scheduling works from the due date of the demands and plans for a just-in-time completion of the order. It is widely recognized that the backward scheduling approach results in a superior plan. And yet, a lot of companies fail to plan in this way…

A lot of planning processes start out with a spreadsheet: it provides an easy, intuitive and flexible way to structure your data. Times goes on, your planning process grows, and soon enough you end up with an Excel that hurts to look at. 

Any supply chain or manufacturing process needs decoupling points where inventory is kept. At the decoupling points, you need to make important decisions on how much inventory to carry.

The terms planning and scheduling are often used interchangeably, but they actually refer to very distinct business processes. The planning process creates a midterm tactical plan, with the purpose of organizing material and capacity timely for the upcoming demand. The scheduling process creates a detailed short term execution plan for individual machines, operators, and materials, taking all constraints into account.