Industrial Equipment:
Get It Together

Make sure the right parts are at the right place at the right time.

The Challenge

Equipment manufacturing is a juggling act involving the coordination of dozens if not hundreds of parts to ensure you have everything needed to assemble finished products on time to meet promised delivery dates. Any supplier shortfall, quality deviation, or skilled labor absence can send your best laid plans to the recycle bin.

The problem? ERP and spreadsheet-based planning tools don’t accurately reflect the reality of the shop floor. Lacking depth, they provide schedules that operators routinely ignore, choosing to work on what’s in front of them and available to work on. And who can blame them when it’s unclear which job in their department is both critical and feasible?

To solve this, you need planning and scheduling that is both robust and realistic:

  • Order-promising detailed enough to accurately account for all parts and operations involved yet still make allowances for variability.
  • Automated planning and scheduling to create plans you can execute considering all the real-world constraints of your business – setup and run grouping rules, availability of skilled labor, availability of hard-to-get parts, plus anything else that reflects the hard and unyielding reality of the shop floor.
  • Planning and scheduling tools that respond and recalibrate in real time. When things go wrong, you need AI-assisted planning that reschedules and optimizes so you can recover fast as possible and immediately identify the impact of any disruptions.

Let’s take a look at some examples of common operational challenges and how you could solve them.

  • Situation
    A supplier informs you that the latest shipment of critical fasteners used in 20% of your products will be delayed.
  • Complication
    You have some stock of the fasteners required but not enough to satisfy all open orders.
  • Question
    Will the delayed shipment affect our production schedule, and if so, which orders will be affected? How can we ensure high priority customers are not impacted?
  • Answer
    Within minutes, the optimizer reorganizes the plan so in-process and high priority orders take precedence using fasteners in stock. Orders not-yet-started are pushed into the future while others are pulled forward to ensure the shop is productive in the meantime.
  • Situation
    Of your four certified welders, one is on vacation and another called in sick and will now be out for the rest of the week.
  • Complication
    Certified welders are already a bottleneck in your plant.
  • Question
    How can you ensure the lack of welders doesn’t slow down the whole plant?
  • Answer
    You run a what-if scenario to find out if the remaining welders work overtime over the weekend whether you can stay on track. You can! You implement this plan and keep the shop running smoothly.
  • Situation
    Final assembly of a product was planned for today but the batch of motors required just failed their load test and requires a rework expected to take three days.
  • Complication
    The next order in the queue, scheduled for tomorrow, doesn’t have all its parts ready and is waiting for sub-assemblies. Assemblers are standing by for direction on what to do next.
  • Question
    Which order or orders could I pull forward to finish today?
  • Answer
    Your scheduling solution quickly identifies two orders with all the parts ready to start. After moving out the rework and pulling forward those two orders, your scheduler automatically updates and publishes the revised plan to get your workforce working again.
  • Situation
    You have a plating line that just jammed and needs an unplanned cleanout that will take three days.
  • Complication
    Several products already in process are waiting for plating.
  • Question
    How can we minimize the cascade effect of delays caused by this outage?
  • Answer
    You create a what-if scenario based on sending some plating to an outside processor, easily identifying the jobs that minimize disruption to your plan.
  • Situation
    You have the opportunity to finally clinch that big customer you’ve been chasing for years.
  • Complication
    They want the first delivery in six weeks.
  • Question
    Can we deliver? Which other customers might be affected?
  • Answer
    Using what-if scenarios, you identify the impact on other customer orders and make an informed decision about whether or not to take the order.
Supply
delay
  • Situation
    A supplier informs you that the latest shipment of critical fasteners used in 20% of your products will be delayed.
  • Complication
    You have some stock of the fasteners required but not enough to satisfy all open orders.
  • Question
    Will the delayed shipment affect our production schedule, and if so, which orders will be affected? How can we ensure high priority customers are not impacted?
  • Answer
    Within minutes, the optimizer reorganizes the plan so in-process and high priority orders take precedence using fasteners in stock. Orders not-yet-started are pushed into the future while others are pulled forward to ensure the shop is productive in the meantime.
  • Situation
    Of your four certified welders, one is on vacation and another called in sick and will now be out for the rest of the week.
  • Complication
    Certified welders are already a bottleneck in your plant.
  • Question
    How can you ensure the lack of welders doesn’t slow down the whole plant?
  • Answer
    You run a what-if scenario to find out if the remaining welders work overtime over the weekend whether you can stay on track. You can! You implement this plan and keep the shop running smoothly.
  • Situation
    Final assembly of a product was planned for today but the batch of motors required just failed their load test and requires a rework expected to take three days.
  • Complication
    The next order in the queue, scheduled for tomorrow, doesn’t have all its parts ready and is waiting for sub-assemblies. Assemblers are standing by for direction on what to do next.
  • Question
    Which order or orders could I pull forward to finish today?
  • Answer
    Your scheduling solution quickly identifies two orders with all the parts ready to start. After moving out the rework and pulling forward those two orders, your scheduler automatically updates and publishes the revised plan to get your workforce working again.
  • Situation
    You have a plating line that just jammed and needs an unplanned cleanout that will take three days.
  • Complication
    Several products already in process are waiting for plating.
  • Question
    How can we minimize the cascade effect of delays caused by this outage?
  • Answer
    You create a what-if scenario based on sending some plating to an outside processor, easily identifying the jobs that minimize disruption to your plan.
  • Situation
    You have the opportunity to finally clinch that big customer you’ve been chasing for years.
  • Complication
    They want the first delivery in six weeks.
  • Question
    Can we deliver? Which other customers might be affected?
  • Answer
    Using what-if scenarios, you identify the impact on other customer orders and make an informed decision about whether or not to take the order.

Quickly adapt to change while improving productivity and on time delivery

Quickly adapt to change

The situation on the ground changes every day. What-if scenario analysis enables you to explore all the possible solutions to untangle your planning knot and quickly find the best outcome.

Manage complexity

Create intelligent schedules that consider all the complexity of interrelated parts, sub-assemblies and their production timing.

Increase on-time delivery

Full visibility across the entire supply chain flow enables you to make commitments to customers, make promises you can keep, and realistic schedules the shop can adhere to.

Improve productivity

Optimize your plans to reduce setup time, maximize utilization of bottleneck resources and keep your operation running.

Commit with confidence

Create what-if scenarios to evaluate the impact of any changes to the plan before you commit, whether it’s overtime, a big new customer, or planned maintenance outage.

Perfect fit

Incorporate all the detailed rules and constraints of your business into planning logic, with solutions that perfectly align with and adapt to your unique business.

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Let us be your trusted partner for supply chain planning and optimization
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