Production Planning News
Desperate to learn about the latest happenings in the world of production planning? Look no further: this page contains the most recent planning and scheduling news from around the globe.
Asprova Corporation announces the establishment of www.lean-manufacturing-japan.com
July 28th, 2008
Asprova Corporation (Head Office: Tokyo, Japan, President: Kuniyoshi Takahashi) announces the launch of www.lean-manufacturing-japan.com (LMJ), a brand new portal website for the global manufacturing industry.
For Asprova Corporation, already the market leader in Japan for production schedulers, the aim of establishing LMJ is to create an international forum for those in the manufacturing industry to express their views and share their experiences about lean manufacturing. The site features in-depth articles about lean manufacturing including such topics as Production Scheduler Q&A and SCM Terminology as well as interviews with leading figures in the manufacturing world. This month's leading interview features Professor Yasuhiro Monden Ph.D talking about his renowned book, "Toyota Production System".
Warren Harrod, editor in chief of LMJ commented, "Lean manufacturing is the production control technique for completely eliminating all waste from manufacturing. We would like not only to introduce our users to the many production control techniques that have been created in Japan such as the Toyota Production System, Production Scheduling, JIT, KANBAN and 5S but also to have discussion from consultants, researchers and other experts in the field of lean manufacturing as well. Our goal is to show how lean manufacturing is actually being used for real companies in practical situations to improve everyday production. Not just in Japan but around the world."
As a truly international website, LMJ intends to become more than just a multi-language portal site. In addition to providing general articles across all languages the LMJ editorial team, through its international network of contributors, also hopes to have unique content for each individual language as well.
www.lean-manufacturing-japan.com
S4M shows completely revised production planning system at IBC
August 10th, 2007
During IBC 2007 S4M – Solutions for Media GmbH presents the production planning system „S4Production“ for the first time with the latest completely revised components. S4Production is a modular built software system that supports production processes from planning over production accompanying functions including progress monitoring to entry of actuals and accounting. S4Production ensures a complete overview at any stage of the production cycle with detailed transparency at any level; thus effective cost and schedule control.
Special emphasis will be put on the new S4Production scheduling module. Being a central tool of everybody who is involved in the scheduling process, it is one of the system’s core elements that arranges for an efficient and transparent management of resources.
The module‘s target is to provide different utilities like templates and functions that enable schedulers to work easily and in a well arranged environment. At the same time the most different working methods of varying scheduling divisions need to be covered by the system.
Hence S4Production represents a multitude of diverse scheduling methods. For example it is possible to schedule concrete as well as abstract resources, a production can be divided into different status (like driving time, build-up, broadcast…); fixed teams, freelancers or external companies can be scheduled as well as “absence from work” or “attendance”. Additionally S4Production supports the creation of series’ of appointments, automatic updates of the displayed data or automatic trans-sectional communication of changes - to mention just a few features.
And all of this is possible via drag & drop. For users this means most easy and intuitive handling of the whole system.
Article from OpenPR.com
Stratasys Production Scheduling Software Ensures Efficiency in Direct Digital Manufacturing
July 30th, 2007
FDM TEAM Program is Optional Feature of new Insight version 6.0.
MINNEAPOLIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--(NASDAQ:SSYS - News) Stratasys today introduced Insight(TM) v. 6.0 -- an enhanced version of its pre-processing software. Insight 6.0 contains two key new production scheduling programs for direct digital manufacturing.
Source: Stratasys Inc.
The production scheduling programs are FDM TEAM(TM) - a paid option, and FDM Control Center,(TM) which comes standard with Insight. Both applications combine multiple machine job queues into a single, easy-to-use interface. TEAM lets users with several or many machines optimize job scheduling for direct digital manufacturing.
With the prior version of Insight, separate interfaces are needed to view job queues for each machine running. With TEAM, all job queues appear on one screen in a Gantt chart format. TEAM has an enhanced interface that is intuitive and easy-to-operate, allowing users to drag and drop jobs for machine load balancing. In addition, blackout (non-working) times can be displayed to show real capacity. This feature omits new-job start times that couldn't realistically occur because an operator isn't available to remove a part and start a new job when the production floor is closed. This lets users optimize scheduling to ensure all machines are running at full capacity.
"Combining many job queues into a single view really opens the door to efficiently manage part production with our direct digital manufacturing systems," says FDM product manager Patrick Robb. "Every aspect of job scheduling and production is simplified, letting manufacturers streamline operations for optimal production."
In addition to the TEAM option, Insight 6.0 offers a number of updates and enhancements and a new interface called Control Center. Control Center combines the previous capabilities of the "Status" and "Admin" programs into a single application. Control Center lets users add, delete, or change the priority of jobs in a system queue. The interface reports system status, such as part description, total build time, estimated time left, and amount of material required, among other things. In addition, users can view (but not modify) multiple system queues in a Gantt format.
Insight 6.0 will work with all current Stratasys FDM systems and is available as a free update for all existing FDM Maxum, FDM Titan, FDM Vantage, FDM 200mc, and ProdigyPlus customers on a valid warranty or maintenance contract. Current versions of Insight come standard with new FDM system purchase, but TEAM will remain a paid option to Insight. The new FDM 400mc includes Insight 6.0.
Article from Yahoo Finance
Best in Class Companies use Lean Scheduling Software
June 22nd, 2007
Lean scheduling software linked to ERP and real-time data from the shop floor is used by Best in Class companies.
June 2006, Chippenham, UK. Preactor International, the UK’s leading specialist planning and scheduling software company has sponsored a survey carried out by AberdeenGroup to identify best practises in Lean manufacturing.
AberdeenGroup is the leading provider of fact-based research focused on the global technology-driven value chain. Founded in 1988, Aberdeen has established the market leading position as the “voice that matters” when it comes to understanding the measurable results being delivered by technology in business.
Survey Objectives
The survey covered companies in North America, Europe and Asia/Pacific in the Automotive, Aerospace, Industrial Equipment, Metals, Food, Beverages, Hi-Tech and Pharmaceutical sectors. The objective was to measure benefits and find the top 20% ‘Best in Class’ implementers of lean. The most important metrics used to measure benefits were:
- On time delivery – measures how well demand is connected to execution
- Throughput time improvement – measures how well execution matches schedules
- Reduction in Manufacturing Cycle time – measures improvements in manufacturing process
- Improvement in scrap levels (Quality)
Survey Findings
Among the survey findings the following has been found.
- A New Generation of Lean professional is emerging, old ideas of IT free implementation of lean using Kanban systems only is being replaced by a focus on specific KPIs such as cost reduction
- Best in Class manufacturers are twice as likely to be addressing the pressure to reduce costs by adopting lean scheduling software applications and integrating them with ERP
- This provides supply chain visibility – a tool for empowerment of lean decision makers
Requirements and Recommendations
The key requirements in the report to become ‘Best in Class’ was that decision makers needed to know current state of the production plan or schedule, the current state of execution against the plan, as well as current customer demand and the status of WIP. This was referred to as ‘actionable data’.
The recommendations in the report included:
- Standardize lean scheduling and execution best practises across the organisation based on the findings of a continuous improvement team
- Maintain the autonomy of decision makers by giving them the visibility to make effective decisions
- Adopt lean software applications and integrate with ERP
- Measure OTD, WIP and scrap regularly
Mike Novels, CEO of Preactor International commented on the report. “It’s nice to have an independent company with the reputation of AberdeenGroup confirm what we and our users have been saying for many years. Lower WIP, better on time delivery performance and higher efficiency has at its heart lean scheduling software to empower the planner”.
The report may be downloaded free of charge from AberdeenGoup’s web site.
http://www.aberdeen.com/summary/report/benchmark/3989-RA-Lean-Scheduling.asp
