Enterprise platforms · Manufacturing
Production planning and scheduling software
We build custom production planning and scheduling software for manufacturers: finite-capacity scheduling that respects machines, tooling, labour, materials and changeovers, what-if scenarios for rush orders and breakdowns, and a live dispatch list for every work centre. It reads orders from your ERP, returns a feasible plan and takes confirmations back from the shop floor, and you own the code.
Requirements template · Manufacturing
Manufacturing systems requirements template
A requirements template for a manufacturing execution system or manufacturing operations layer, organised around ISA-95: orders, scheduling, shop-floor data, traceability, quality, equipment and integration.- 01Eight requirement areas written as testable statements.
- 02The fields a machine signal list needs before you connect equipment.
- 03Integration points with the ERP and the plant network.
- 04Seven questions to put to any vendor or development partner.
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What the system does, module by module.
- 01
Demand and order intake
Production orders, forecasts and planned orders from the ERP, with due dates, priorities, customer commitments and the material status of each. - 02
Capacity model
Work centres, machines, shifts, calendars, planned downtime, labour skills and tooling modelled with their real limits. - 03
Finite-capacity scheduling
Operations placed on resources in time, forward or backward from due dates, so the plan is feasible instead of a wish list. - 04
Sequence-dependent changeovers
Setup and cleaning times that depend on the previous product, with sequencing that groups similar work to reduce changeover time. - 05
Material and tooling constraints
Checks against material availability, lead times, tooling and fixtures, so work is only scheduled when it can start. - 06
Optimisation and rules
Priority rules, heuristics and constraint-based optimisation tuned to goals such as on-time delivery, utilisation or changeover cost. - 07
What-if scenarios
Copies of the plan for rush orders, machine breakdowns, shortages or overtime, compared side by side before one is released. - 08
Dispatch and re-scheduling
A live list per work centre, updated as operations complete, with automatic re-planning when reality diverges from the plan. - 09
Performance reporting
Schedule adherence, on-time delivery, utilisation and bottleneck analysis, with reasons for deviations captured at the source.
Reference architecture.
Standards and interfaces
What we design against.
- ISA-95 and B2MML
- The production schedule and performance exchange between business planning and manufacturing operations.
- ISO 22400
- Key performance indicators for manufacturing operations management, as the definitions behind the reports.
- MRP II and APS practice
- Separation between material requirements planning in the ERP and detailed scheduling on constrained resources.
- Theory of constraints
- Drum-buffer-rope scheduling around the bottleneck, where it suits the process.
- ERP interfaces
- APIs, IDocs, files or message queues of the ERP in use.
- OpenAPI
- Interfaces for dispatch clients, shop-floor systems and reporting.
Data model
The core entities.
- Production order and operation
- Product, quantity, due date, routing step, resource options and status.
- Resource and calendar
- Machine, tool or crew, capacity, shifts, planned downtime and skills.
- Changeover matrix
- Setup and cleaning times between product families or attributes.
- Schedule and version
- Operation start and end by resource, plan version, release time and the user who released it.
- Constraint
- Material, tooling or labour availability and the operations they limit.
- Scenario
- Changes applied, resulting plan and the measures compared.
- Deviation
- Planned against actual, reason code and resolution.
When custom development is the right call.
Controls designed in, not added later.
Plan release control
Only authorised planners release a schedule, with each version stored and a record of who approved it.Role-based access
Planners, supervisors and operators see the views they need, and read-only access for management.Resilient dispatch
Work centres keep the last released schedule if the network or the scheduler is unavailable.Integration integrity
Confirmations are idempotent, so duplicate messages from the floor do not double count.Audit trail
Changes to resources, rules and plans are recorded with user and time.
From discovery to a system you run.
- 01
Planning process review
We follow a representative stretch of production with planners and supervisors and record the real constraints, rules of thumb and workarounds. - 02
Model and objective design
The resource model, constraints and objectives are agreed, with test cases drawn from past orders. - 03
Build and replay history
The scheduler is built and replayed on historical orders, with the result compared against what actually happened. - 04
Pilot on one area
One production area plans and dispatches with the scheduler while the old method is kept as a fallback. - 05
Roll out and tune
More areas follow, with rules tuned from adherence data and planners' feedback.
Relevant work
Where to see our work.
Common questions.
- How is this different from MRP in the ERP?
- MRP calculates what material and capacity are needed over a horizon, usually with infinite capacity. The scheduler decides the order of operations on each machine given real constraints, and says whether due dates are achievable.
- Can it handle sequence-dependent changeovers?
- Yes. Changeover times are modelled by product family or attribute, and the sequencing groups work to reduce them, within due-date limits.
- What happens when a machine breaks down?
- The planner marks the downtime, and the scheduler re-plans the affected operations. A what-if view shows the effect on delivery dates before the new plan is released.
- Does it work with our ERP?
- Yes. Orders, routings and calendars come from the ERP through its interfaces, and dates and confirmations return to it.
- Who owns the code?
- You do. The code, the model and the data stay yours.