The Top 5 Signs Your Company Needs a New Production Planning Software

Production facility managers will often say that they don't think their factory is ready for production planning software. While it is true that implementing a new software for the entire company can be a major decision, it is important to consider implementing one before major production issues arise.

Once problems arise, it can be extremely stressful for employees to scramble to input data, learn a new system, and implement changes to improve the factory's efficiency. This is because employees are working in a reactive mode to solve expensive mistakes that could have been prevented by implementing a software preemptively.

Now, we implement solutions to problems with confidence, before constraints become a manufacturing issue.

GREGORY VAN LEIRSBURG, PRODUCTION SCHEDULER, STANDARD PROCESS SUPPLEMENTS

Instead, it is a good idea to implement a new production planning software before small problems turn into big ones. If any of the following statements are true about your company, then you might want to start seriously exploring a new production planning software program. 

1. Late Orders and Longer Lead Times

We all know that keeping our customers happy is critical to the success of our business and careers. However, if your orders are shipping late or your have increasingly longer lead times, your customer satisfaction ratings will decrease.

It's easy to continue the status quo and hope that your customers won't go elsewhere for faster, more reliable service. However, with factors like the 'Amazon Effect', customer expectations are constantly changing and increasing.

Instead of hoping that your customers will remain with your company, you can take action to use a planning and control system to ensure that you are the best choice for your customers, not your competition.

2. Maintenance and Control Inspections are Being Missed

While most factories have delays in routine maintenance, cleaning, safety, and quality control inspections during peak operational times, regularly missing or delaying these can quickly become a disastrous problem.

If your facility can't seem to keep up with routine factory functions like these, you need a better way to get your schedule under control.

With an advanced planning and scheduling software, your production efficiency will increase which means that you will find it easier to schedule around machine maintenance and inspections without causing major delays in production.

3. Your Facility is Losing Productivity and Leaking Money

Ideally, every piece of equipment and employee in your company would work at maximum efficiency on the right orders, giving you and easy-to-predict production rate and maximum profitability.

In the real world, each employee has their own pace and skill set, and every machine has its own quirks. If you don't know what issues are causing your production rates and profit to plummet, you need to do something about it.

Production planning software can track every production line, product, and employee in order to find patterns and solutions that humans just can't spot. Plus, an advanced planning and scheduling system can go beyond tracking to actually automate work assignments and production sequencing to maximize the on-time output of the factory. 

4. Rising Labor Costs

Increased production doesn't always mean that you have to hire more staff. Likewise, decreased production doesn't mean that you have to lay-off staff.

Advanced production planning software can find the most efficient way to use the people you have and identify training or marketing opportunities. That means you'll have a more efficient workforce and increase your profit without painful employee changes.

By providing better tools to your planning team, you will also reduce their stress level, save them time, and make them even more productive than they already are.

5. Your Facility is Planning to Expand:

While managers often implement a new software after an expansion, it is much easier to get the software up and running before new line and employees are added.

Not only does this give the prediction portion of the program more data to work with, it also gives you the time to adjust the program to your facility before implementing more changes.

As an added bonus, the software can help facilitate the expansion by generating What-If scenarios for various factory floor configurations, staff rotations, and even equipment swaps so you know what your investment will do for your business and your customers - all before you make the investment.

If your company is showing any of these signs, you may need to implement an advanced planning and scheduling software program. PlanetTogether's Advanced Planning and Scheduling Software can help you reduce lead times and increase productivity, so that your company can be the most efficient.

Advanced Planning and Scheduling (APS) Software

Advanced Planning and Scheduling Software has become a must for modern-day manufacturing operations as customer demand for increased product assortment, fast delivery, and downward cost pressures become prevalent. These systems help planners save time while providing greater agility in updating ever-changing priorities, production schedules, and inventory plans. APS Systems can be quickly integrated with an ERP/MRP software to fill the gaps where these systems lack planning and scheduling flexibility, accuracy, and efficiency.

With APS you can:

• Create optimized schedules that balance production efficiency and delivery performance
• Maximize throughput on bottleneck resources to increase revenue
• Synchronize supply with demand to reduce inventories
• Provide company-wide visibility to resource capacity
• Enable scenario data-driven decision making

The implementation of an Advanced Planning and Scheduling (APS) Software will take your manufacturing operations to the next level of production efficiency by taking advantage of the operational data you already possess in your ERP system. APS is a step in the right direction of efficiency and lean manufacturing production enhancement. 

Lean Manufacturing Video: How APS Cuts Waste Before Problems Escalate

See how Advanced Planning and Scheduling (APS) software supports lean manufacturing by reducing waste in labor, materials, and overhead. In this lean manufacturing video, PlanetTogether APS is used to create realistic production schedules that reduce changeovers, avoid bottlenecks, and prevent last-minute firefighting. It’s an ideal next step if you’re already seeing signs like late orders, missed maintenance, rising labor costs, or productivity leaks and want planning software that helps you fix these issues before they become crises.

 

Recognize the Signs? See What an APS Implementation Really Takes.

In this article, you’ve seen five clear signs that it’s time to look at new production planning software:

• Late orders and longer lead times, putting customer satisfaction and competitiveness at risk
• Missed maintenance and inspections, creating safety, quality, and downtime issues
• Productivity leaks and “mystery” losses, where you can’t see why rates and profits are dropping
• Rising labor costs, even when hiring or layoffs don’t explain the change
• Planned expansion, where adding lines and staff without better planning tools only magnifies existing problems

You’ve also seen how Advanced Planning and Scheduling (APS) software can use the operational data already in your ERP/MRP system to create optimized schedules, increase visibility to capacity, and support scenario-based, data-driven decision making—so you can fix these issues before they become expensive crises.

Our white paper, “APS Implementation: Just the Facts,” gives you a practical roadmap from recognizing these signs to running a live APS system. It explains what a real APS project involves—data, integration, resources, timeline—and how to set expectations so your implementation delivers the improvements your plant needs.

In this guide, you’ll learn how to:

• Turn existing ERP/MRP data (orders, routings, BOMs, capacities) into a robust APS model
• Plan integration between APS and ERP so schedules and priorities flow seamlessly to the shop floor and back
• Organize your project phases and internal team so implementation doesn’t overload planners and supervisors
• Use APS from day one to tackle the issues called out in this article: late orders, missed maintenance, productivity leaks, rising labor costs, and growth-driven complexity
• Measure and communicate the impact of APS on lead times, on-time delivery, and overall efficiency

If these five signs sound familiar, this implementation guide is your next step from “we know we need new software” to “we know exactly how to implement APS successfully.”