Project of the month
"Replacing Excel as the production planning tool "
Initial situation
- An international manufacturer of retail environments employs a variety of Excel spreadsheets to plan and control the order processing and production
- A continuous flow of information from order processing through engineering and work preparation to order execution and on-site installation is not available.
- The usage of planning and control functions within the existing ERP system is very limited
- No transparency to order backlog, production progress and key production data is available
Improvements achieved in this project
- Eliminated the need for staff and work center related Excel spreadsheets for planning and controlling of production orders.
- Enabled high transparency of production progress, online and in real time
- Plan, manage, and control production orders are now based on actual process data instead of relying on gut feelings of staff members
Approach
- Preparation of a current state analysis of order processing processes from receipt of order to delivery.
- Development of an optimized continuous order processing process with emphasis on:
- Implementation of central production planning and scheduling position with the following responsibilities:
- Planning and management of order processing from engineering to installation.
- Coordination with area supervisors to prevent impending delays
- Systematic production capacity planning utilizing ERP-system functionality
- Leading the daily/weekly planning meeting
- Preparation of Make-or-Buy decisions
- Determination of key performance indicators for internal supplier reliability, production cost and productivity.
- Analysis, monitoring and ongoing updating of key performance indicators (KPIs)
- Extension of ERP-system modules
- Implementation of a planning cockpit overviewing all production orders, displaying the processes involved and the specific processing states.
- Implementation of a resource planning module for engineering, work preparation and production
- Production control station with real time production progress data
- Automatic generation and publication of key performance indicators utilizing the ERP-system
- Provide support and assistance from analysis, conceptualization to job site implementation.
- Audit the new order processing processes once implemented.
