The PlanetTogether management team combines almost sixteen years of applied experience and over decades worth of combined experience in production scheduling, planning and optimization development and implementation services. Our focus, passion, and commitment to solving the world's toughest manufacturing scheduling problems will be the cornerstone for your new competitive edge!
James M. Cerra
Co-Founder and President
James oversees integration of PlanetTogether's software, consulting, training, support, strategic partnership, and business development activities. He has been instrumental in the design and rollout of three Advanced Planning & Scheduling applications over the past fifteen years where his role included software design, implementation consulting, and support.
Prior to co-founding PlanetTogether, James was the APS Product Manager for Epicor Software Corporation and Senior APS Consultant at C-WAY Systems Inc.
James holds a Masters of Engineering and a B.S. degree in Operations Research and Industrial Engineering from Cornell University.
Larry Hargis
Co-Founder and Director of Development
Larry is the chief architect of PlanetTogether's technology vision and optimization and constraint-management algorithms. He has extensive expertise in software architecture, simulation software, and production scheduling algorithms.
Prior to co-founding PlanetTogether, Larry headed the Advanced Planning & Scheduling (APS) development for Epicor Software Corporation and DataWorks Corporation.
Larry holds a B.S. in Mathematics and Computer Science from San Diego State University.
Peter Nelson
Direct & Channel Sales Manager
Peter is responsible for managing both direct and channel sales from the very beginning all the way to implementation. He has extensive experience with implementing and selling advanced planning and scheduling systems, having worked for nearly six years as an implementation consultant for C-WAY Systems and as a sales consultant for Logility. His passion for all things manufacturing extend beyond the realm of process and discrete manufacturing into the realm of education. In 2004, Peter worked as a teacher for public high schools and middle schools and has been a guest lecturer for Cornell Graduate Manufacturing classes and at the national APICS Conference.
Peter holds a B.S. in Mechanical engineering from Cornell University.
Brina Lee
Marketing Manager
Brina is responsible for managing all activities necessary to implement PlanetTogether's comprehensive marketing plans. This includes communicating PlanetTogether's core competencies and product capabilities to consumers and partners as well as providing industry feedback to our product management team to drive future development.
Brina holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications from University of California at San Diego.
Alex Chiu
Partner Channel Manager
Alex manages all partner development initiatives to ensure maximum success for the PlanetTogether partner community. This includes the provision of support and services to existing partners, coordination of partner support and training, and worldwide expansion of the partner channel by developing new relationships with future PlanetTogether partners.
Alex holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Literature from University of California at San Diego.
Dr. William Maxwell
Board of Directors
Professor Maxwell has been on the engineering faculty at Cornell since 1960. He is the Andrew Schultz Jr. Professor of Industrial Engineering. He was a Ford Foundation distinguished visiting professor at the University of Chicago in 1968-69, a visiting professor at the University of Michigan in 1977-78, a visiting professor at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, in 1983-84 and a visiting professor at Stanford University in 1989-90.
Maxwell co-authored, The Theory of Scheduling, the leading reference on production scheduling algorithms and best practices.
Professor Maxwell has been elected to the National Academy of Engineering. It is one of the highest honors an engineer can receive.
Maxwell's research has focused on the scheduling of industrial production, a complex area that involves coordinating the manufacture and delivery of parts, customer orders and situations on the shop floor to deliver completed products just when they are needed but without expensive overproduction. He has been part of a group of faculty members in the School of Operations Research and Industrial Engineering and the Johnson Graduate School of Management studying these problems.
He was a consultant in residence at the RAND Corporation in 1965, at General Motors Manufacturing Development in 1977-78, and at SI Handling Systems in 1983-84. Co-founder of C-WAY Systems, Inc. Maxwell was the Chief Scientist behind their production scheduling solution, The Production Reservation System and now sits on PlanetTogether Inc.'s Board of Advisors. Maxwell is also a member of the Institute of Industrial Engineers, the Operations Research Society of America, and the Society of Manufacturing Engineers.
History and Special Thanks
James, Larry, and Peter all had the honor to work with two esteemed leaders in the field of production scheduling for many years at Epicor Software and C-WAY Systems. Dr. William Maxwell and Dr. Richard Conway, Cornell University professors emeritus, and founders of C-WAY Systems Inc. laid the groundwork for PlanetTogether through their definitive book, Theory of Scheduling, and their APS application, The Production Reservation System (PRS), which was the leading graphical-based production scheduling tool dating back to the early 1980's. Working closely with Maxwell and Conway for more than ten years and in hundreds of manufacturing sites provided the academic and real-world understanding of the challenges manufacturing schedulers face and an understanding of how to model and solve these problems with computers.
We are grateful for the mentorship, vision, and ethical guidance that Max and Dick shared with us as they pursued their passion for scheduling throughout our years together.