Production Planning Articles & White Papers

Looking for the opinions of the most influential figures in the industry? This page contains a selection of the best production planning articles and white papers that have been published to date.

Analyzing Production Schedules

More powerful, low cost computing systems and software development tools that allow creation of fast, easy-to-maintain software have driven the cost of sophisticated software down with no compromise in performance. For manufacturing, the most visible example of enhanced price/performance software is finite capacity scheduling (FCS) systems. As with any tool, the real value in understanding what the results have to say...
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Empowering the Planner

Much has been written about lean manufacturing over the years and one of the major 'wastes' that lean manufacturing initiatives target is inventory in all its forms, raw materials, WIP and finished goods. If you have read what has been written, or paid for a lean practitioner to advise you, you will have inevitably concluded that IT will play no part in any lean initiative, and that Visual Production Control (VPC), typically in the form of Kanbans and supermarkets, is the only way forward...
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Keeping an eye on the Food Processing KPI

One of the fastest growing sectors of business over the last few years has been in the production of fresh and pre-processed foods for the large multiples. Everything from fresh salads to pizza, pre-prepared meals, soups, sauces etc are experiencing bumper demand...
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Making More Money with Finite Capacity Scheduling

The ever increasing pressures from the market place has caused companies to re-assess how the production planning function is carried out and to look for tools that will support the decision making process and generate achievable schedules in a timely manner. This paper describes the use of a graphical, finite capacity scheduling package that can be linked with existing systems such as MRP software to provide the user with a rapid decision support tool that balances demand with capacity...
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Optimisation Techniques and Their Application to Production Scheduling

This paper is a short resume of various optimization techniques and their application to production scheduling. Descriptions of four different optimization techniques are given. The use of each technique is described in the context of real-world production scheduling decision-making environments...
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The Leanest Lean you have ever Seen

Lean manufacturing is currently one of the buzz words in industry and quite rightly so. Most companies are under pressure to produce more products in shorter delivery times, without visibility of future demand and with fewer inventories. That’s quite a feat to achieve. The question always arises as to whether there is a place for IT in lean manufacturing initiatives...
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The Luddites of Lean

Most people reading this will assume that the Luddites in the title are those who have not embraced the Lean manufacturing message, but in fact the Luddites are the many Lean practitioners who ignore the benefits technology can bring in creating an even Leaner environment. To try and understand why these practitioners are seen as Luddites, a simple review of Lean Manufacturing will help.
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