MIS suppliers to the print and packaging industry, Shuttleworth Business Systems, has launched a new release which automates the production planning processes.
Usually planning systems rely heavily on the ‘planner’ to interact with the system to put together an achievable work schedule. However, as lead times reduce, work is often in and out before it can be scheduled. As a result it is very difficult for a company to understand what available capacity it has.
Shuttleworth has automated the process where as jobs are created, amended or deleted, they are automatically prioritised according to sophisticated rules. ‘Due Date’ is often used to prioritise the sequence of jobs, however this does not take account of capacity and the amount of process time on the job. The new rules takes this into account, which ensures the best possible fit for the current workload.
The whole planning process can be completely automated by setting a timer at intervals determined by the planner. As the planning system automatically updates; jobs are updated and prioritised using the new rules. Real time bookings from the data capture system are continually fed into the schedule and the whole MIS is updated with progress against plan.
Paul Deane, joint managing director, said, ‘The new automated Production Planning functionality will make a huge difference to how companies plan and manage work through their business. We have worked long and hard with our users to identify the best way we can help improve this process. This great piece of software is a result of that work.’
