Solutions Overview
PlanetTogether customers have transformed their planning and scheduling processes from disconnected spreadsheets and ad-hoc procedures to productive and profitable modern methods using PlanetTogether visual planning, scheduling and optimization software. Using real-time integrated sales and manufacturing data, PlanetTogether optimizes orders and resources using adjustable planning rules tuned to your key business drivers.
Users benefit from customizable graphic and tabular displays, using "what-if" scenarios and exception management to confidently arrive at the best decisions. Create any number of scenarios to evaluate proposed changes before committing valuable resources. Simulate the addition of overtime or new equipment, expediting or adding orders, optimizing with different business rules, cross-training employees, etc. and see the impact on specific orders and Key Performance Indicators (KPI).
Whether your business is in discrete, process or mixed-mode manufacturing, PlanetTogether has the adaptability to easily create schedules that are efficient and accurate. Constraints such as limited machines, labor, tooling, and materials are taken into account automatically. In addition, storage constraints, transfer delays, parallel operations, efficiency factors, resource capabilities, and even custom rules can be built into the scheduling rules for accurate schedules that will lead to happier customers and more profitable operations.
If you are looking for your first APS system, you might feel a little unsure about exactly what characteristics to look for. Please feel free to download our white paper on "Selecting Scheduling Software".
If this is not your first system then you might be familiar with the fact that most systems available today fall short in functionality, lacking even what we consider the basic necessities of a reliable system. PlanetTogether is based on fifteen years of production scheduling focus and experience and as a result contains the necessary functionality that can adapt to almost any production environment.
Want to learn more? Call (617) 803-7917 to speak to one of our trained specialists.
"The users tell us they are most excited about the PlanetTogether portion of the solution. The graphical scheduling board with drap-n-drop functionality is intuitive and informative."
-Gary Legendre, Project Manager for Interdyn Progressive Group
PlanetTogether Overview Video
Business Benefits
- Gain a full 360 degree view of your company's planning and production status.
- Grow revenue with shorter lead times and reliable promise dates that allow for more on-time deliveries and better customer service.
- Cut costs by significantly reducing inventories, overtime, expediting, and time spent updating spreadsheets.
- Creat accurate real-time schedules that your whole company can rely on.
- Make informed decisions with full understanding of their impact.
- Accurately predict the resources needed for each job and when the job will be completed.
- Adjust and respond to changes quickly and easily with real-time tracking and performance indicators.
- Plan across multiple facilities managing critical manufacturing constraints.
Want to learn more? Call (617) 803-7917 to speak to one of our trained specialists.
Key Features
Are you looking for the best scheduling software to fit your company? PlanetTogether uniquely empowers you with features that other systems don't offer. Because our developers have more than a decade's worth of experience creating production scheduling software, PlanetTogether has all the features any scheduler and facility could ask for. Here are a few of our key features:
- Forecasts Accurate Schedules with Real-Time Updates
- Constraint-Based Scheduling create constraining links between different jobs explicitly or based on time-phased inventory, production and bills-of-material
- 100% Microsoft.Net Architecture to easily extend, support, and use
- Multi-User & Multi-Plant Capabilities for multiple factories or planners
- Optimization Engine to maximize production efficiencies and on-time delivery
- Process Manufacturing Constraints have special rules for batch production scheduling in industries such as Food & Beverage and Chemical production
- Sales & Operations Planning to plan inventory and synchronize production with demand
- Visual Scheduling Board for easy “drag-and-drop” re-scheduling
- "What-If" Impact Analysis to evaluate proposed changes before committing resources
**PlanetTogether's Closed Loop Planning System: uses information from your ERP system and publishes schedules using your real-time data.
Want to learn more? Call (617) 803-7917 to speak to one of our trained specialists.
Solutions Details
PlanetTogether solutions fit your business. Simply choose the system Level based on the size of your company and the functional Modules based on your needs. The result is a solution that is right for you now and has the flexibility to grow as your business grows.
Levels
- Enterprise: Companies with multiple locations face challenges such as: process standardization across facilities, inter-plant coordination, and multi-warehouse storage and transfer. PlanetTogether Enterprise handles these challenges and provides a cohesive solution across your entire company.
- Standard: Whether your company is a mid-size to large single-site business or a small business that is thriving and growing, PlanetTogether Standard will provide you with the tools to simplify your scheduling challenges and streamline your manufacturing flows, while enabling your team to work together.
- Small Business: Small manufacturers face many of the challenges of larger manufacturers and as a business grows manual and spreadsheet-driven tools often become a burden to maintain and difficult to use. PlanetTogether Small Business will provide an easy-to-use, integrated scheduling solution that helps take your business to the next level.
| Plants † | Master Schedulers † | What-If Users †** | View-Only Users † | Shop-View Users † | |
| Enterprise | unlimited | unlimited | unlimited | unlimited | unlimited |
| Standard | 1 | 3 | 3 | unlimited | unlimited |
| Small Business | 1 | 1 | 1 | unlimited | unlimited |
† Licenses sold-separately. One Master Scheduler and one Plant are included with all systems. All user licenses are “concurrent” meaning they can be shared by users, limiting only simultaneous login.
** Requires What-If Scenarios Module
Click Here for more details about PlanetTogether Licenses.
PlanetTogether's Base System
What is in PlanetTogether's Base System? The Base System has most of the critical functionality that manufacturers need to simplify their scheduling process and increase productivity on the shop floor. Learn More
Optional Modules
- Order & Resource Optimizer Learn More
- Inventory, Labor & Tooling Constraints Learn More
- Process Manufacturing Constraints Learn More
- What-If Scenarios Learn More
- Sales & Operations Planning Learn More
Want to learn more? Call (617) 803-7917 to speak to one of our trained specialists.
Technical Specs
Minimum Hardware Recommendations
These are the minimum recommended hardware and software for running PlanetTogether in a production environment. Note that a dedicated server is not always required. However depending on the size of your dataset, frequency of rescheduling, and load from other applications a dedicated server may be preferred.
Please pay special attention to the monitor size, processor speed, and memory (RAM) requirements as these tend to have a big impact on the user-friendliness and productivity of the solution.
Server:
PlanetTogether is often installed along with an ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) System on the same server. Only for very large numbers of orders is it generally advised to install PlanetTogether on its own server (for example when scheduling more than 5,000 operations).
- Microsoft Windows Vista, XP, 2000, or Windows Server 2000 or newer
- Remote Desktop (for remote support)
- 3 GHz processor
- 2 GB of physical RAM *
- 10 GB of hard disk space
- Microsoft SQL Server 2005 or newer (for Web based reporting)
- Any necessary ODBC drivers for connecting to other systems.
Master Scheduler Client:
- Microsoft Windows Vista, XP, 2000
- 3 GHz processor
- 2 GB of physical RAM *
- 5 GB of hard disk space
- 24" UXGA (1600 x 1200) monitor
View-Only, What-If Client:
- Microsoft Windows Vista, XP, 2000
- 2 GHz processor
- 2 GB of physical RAM *
- 5 GB of hard disk space
- 21"UXGA monitor
Integration
While PlanetTogether can run as a standalone system, it was designed to primarily be used in close concert with an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system. As such, it has very flexible integration tools that will provide a closed-loop, fully integrated planning system.
- All data can be imported and exported.
- Interface "Wizard" can be used to map PlanetTogether data to external system data.
- Export to Microsoft SQL Server, Excel, or XML.
- Import from Microsoft SQL Server, ODBC, Oracle, Microsoft Access, Excel, XML, and text files.
- API for direct real-time calls from any Microsoft .Net language (C#, Visual Basic, C++).
- Imports and exports can be manual or automated for certain frequencies or times of the day.
Want to learn more? Call (617) 803-7917 to speak to one of our trained specialists.