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How to Automate Finite Capacity Scheduling

how to automate finite capacity scheduling

In our series on the 4.0 shop floor, we’ve examined how to start production orders at the right time, optimize production batch size, synchronize manufacturing flows, and accelerate production flows. In this article, we’ll discuss how to automate finite capacity scheduling according to DDMRP principles. Combining Pull Flow and Capacity Constraints It’s important to pull manufacturing flows … Read more

Shopfloor 4.0: Accelerating Production Flows

In our first article on the 4.0 shop floor, we looked at how to start production orders at the right time. Then, we discussed how to optimize production batch size and synchronize manufacturing flows. In this article, we’ll outline how to use queues to accelerate production flows. Managing Production Flow If you have ever participated in value … Read more

Shop Floor 4.0: Modeling resources

manufacturing resource modeling

The 4.0 shop floor is about being agile, responding to real customer demand, and making priorities visible and decisions intuitive for all. In our first article on the topic, we looked at how to start production orders at the right time. Then, we discussed how to optimize production batch size. In this article, we’ll discuss … Read more

Shop floor 4.0: Adapting Production Batch Sizes to Flow

production batch sizes

The 4.0 shop floor is about being agile, responding to real customer demand, and making priorities visible and decisions intuitive for all. In this series of articles, we look back at the key principles of a demand-driven operating model for the Industry 4.0. The Ideal of “One-Piece Flow” Lean has promoted an ideal of reducing … Read more

Shop Floor 4.0: How to Release Work at the Right Time!

The 4.0 shop floor — so talked about of late — is not only about incorporating real-time technology and digital tools. The 4.0 shop floor must be agile and respond to real customer demand. Lead times must be short, priorities must be visible, and decisions must be intuitive for all. In this series of articles, we look back at … Read more

Developing Intuitive S&OP Processes

Associating intuition and S&OP processes may seem… counterintuitive, right? For most companies that practice it, the S&OP process involves gathering information, facts, and hypotheses to analyze and then use to develop an action plan — a roadmap for negotiating changes in the coming months.  It’s all about data crunching, logical reasoning, putting together elements from … Read more

Supply Chain Planning Automation

supply chain planning automation

Automation has taken over distribution platforms and industrial sites. Robots and machines are used to prepare orders and manufacture our products. However, supply chain planning remains a human prerogative — a task for planners, buyers, master schedulers, forecasters, supply chain managers, and so on. Is this is something to be welcomed or worried about? Companies … Read more

Understanding Demand Driven Supply Chain Interactions

supply chain interactions

Quantum physics teaches us that an isolated particle has no property in itself. A particle exists only through the interactions it has with other particles. It is the interactions that constitute matter. Within the broader universe, it is the interactions that make, for example, the earth turn around the sun, the moon around the earth, … Read more

Centralized vs. Decentralized Supply Chain Management

centralized vs. decentralized supply chain nodes

International organizations often struggle with the question of whether and to what extent they should centralize their supply chain functions. Should demand and supply planners be integrated into a central function, at a group level or at a cluster level (whether by region or by business unit)? Or should these functions be as close to … Read more

Building a Sustainable Supply Chain

sustainable supply chain - shipping containers

You may have read about eco-friendly shipping containers, whose floors are made of bamboo, rather than devastating tropical wood forests. Concerns have already been raised about the sustainability of the adhesive that’s used when manufacturing these floors. But the skeptics at the back of the room might point out bigger flaws. Can a container really … Read more

Does Pull Manufacturing Still Work?

pull manufacturing

Most companies are experiencing difficult times on the supply side. Containers are piling up on one side of the globe and are sorely lacking on the other. Delays are piling up, and variability is clearly at a maximum on the supply side. Can our supply chains really be demand driven in this context? Does pull … Read more