Challenge

Our client, a national foods manufacturer, had identified that sites across its network have moved to different production planning and reporting processes.  Without an overarching system to drive consistency and compliance, each local site had developed variations on the prescribed standard, making it difficult to compare efficiency across sites.  The current processes were also highly administrative and heavily reliant on the expertise of a few select individuals.

Our client wished to move to a consistent process across all sites which would enable effective management of day to day operations and easy comparisons across sites.  The client also wanted to reduce dependence on administrative processes by digitally capturing and sharing data within the production area and across sites.

Our Solution

  • Production Scheduler is a customised, web-based Manufacturing Resource Planning (MRP II) solution. It offers Manufacturing Execution (MES) capability to plan, track and execute production plans directly from the shop floor
  • Production Scheduler was integrated with the client's ERP system to ensure there was a single source of truth across the entire value chain and no replication of activity
  • The solution managed all raw material and finished goods requirements, bills of material as well as labour requirements
  • Reporting was customised to the specific requirements of the client

Benefits

  • Drastically reduced production planning lead times compared to existing planning tools
  • Realtime production data from shop floor allowed planners to forecast and plan subsequent production queues with full visibility
  • Single point of truth on Production Scheduler reduced the risk of data consistency problems compared to previous processes