The benefits of production scheduling software
Production scheduling software offers manufacturers various benefits, not just in the production cycle but the entire business. Here are the primary benefits:
Improves resource utilization: The software provides real-time information on the availability of resources, raw materials, and equipment as well as machine status. Having all this information on a single interface helps manufacturers create optimized production schedules. This improves productivity and ensures higher profits.
Streamlines collaboration among departments: Production scheduling software is used by almost every department, from procurement to dispatch and purchase to sales. Single-window access helps departments collaborate and track the live production status. This makes it easy to synchronize information for a smooth production cycle.
Identifies bottlenecks: It can be difficult to manually track a large volume of resources and remember reordering schedules. Product scheduling software monitors stock quantities and reminds you to reorder stock. An organized workflow helps production managers easily identify and remove bottlenecks to avoid disruptions in the production cycle.
Typical features of production scheduling software
Automated scheduling: Set up rule-based algorithms to automatically schedule production plans based on business demands and resource availability.
Capacity planning: Determine your organization’s production capacity to meet fluctuating demands.
Material requirement planning (MRP): Allow manufacturers to analyze material availability and plan future material needs for completing orders.
“What-if” analysis: Help production managers analyze potential production schedules and alternate approaches in case of any disruptive events and issues that may hinder production.
Change management: Analyze the impact of disruptive changes in demand on production cycles and support change implementation.
Scheduling: Assign schedules to workers and keep a tab on the actual production to schedule production operations.
The cost of production scheduling software
Most products in the market are priced on a per month basis and can be divided into three pricing tiers based on their starting price.
Price ranges*:
*The pricing included is for the entry-level/lowest-priced offering that was found on vendor websites on May 2, 2019. These ranges correspond to the 25th, 75th, and 100th percentile of the pricing information gathered from vendor websites of sample products.
The above list summarizes pricing for the base plans of most products. An enterprise or premium product, which is priced higher, may include additional features such as integration with core applications (ERP and CRM), management of multiple production sites, and backward production scheduling.
Considerations when purchasing production scheduling software
Ease of use: Production scheduling software can be used by anyone, from technically-sound production managers to technology novices. As the manufacturing industry has a high attrition rate, the software you choose should have a short learning curve and be easy to use. Participate in free trials and demos to get a feel of the software. You can even ask your employees to test and evaluate the tool before taking a decision.
Support and service commitments: Abrupt halts in the production cycle can result in huge losses. These could be due to the production scheduling software failing. That’s why we recommend choosing a vendor who is available for support when you need it. Ask your vendor about the support options before making a purchase decision.
Remote accessibility: Production managers and engineers need to constantly move around the work floor to ensure that machines and resources are working properly. To do that, they need production schedules and details in-hand all the time. Therefore, the software you select should be accessible on mobile phones and tablets.
Relevant production scheduling software trends
IoT will positively impact production schedules: Manufacturers are implementing IoT technology in their production operations, as 63% of them believe that IoT will benefit their production. Nearly one-third of the existing production equipment and processes have embedded IoT devices that collect a wide range of data in real time. This data can be analyzed to help businesses predict better production schedules and improve their production cycle.
Big data, predictive analytics to improve production scheduling: Modern solutions can collect huge volumes of data and use predictive analytics or machine-learning algorithms to create production schedules with greater accuracy. These solutions collect data such as machine status, equipment health, raw material cost and availability, and seasonal changes in demand.
Sources
Products evaluated for the pricing calculation were taken from Capterra’s directory page. The pricing ranges exclude freemium versions of the products. The features highlighted were identified based on their relevance and the percentage of products in Capterra’s directory that offer them.
The following sources were used for this document:
1. Top 5 Tech Trends for Small Business, Capterra (Date accessed: May 2, 2019)
2. 10 Trends That Will Dominate Manufacturing in 2019 (Date accessed: May 2, 2019)
