It’s time to switch to automated production planning and scheduling in your manufacturing facilities

How does your Home & Lifestyle business manage production scheduling and execution in your manufacturing facilities? If you still handle these processes by manually inputting data into spreadsheets and running ad hoc reports, the chances of running into production bottlenecks and wasting precious resources are high. Information gaps can prevent accurate scenario planning, leading to insufficient raw materials, idle or overworked workers and production delays. In some cases, you end up letting down customers and losing out to your competitors.

As labor costs escalate, product complexity grows and markets fluctuate, businesses in the Home & Lifestyle industry cannot afford to waste time on manual data collection and production planning. Instead, industry leaders are turning to intelligent solutions, based on DELMIA, that automatically capture all data related to resource capacity and performance on the shop floor to provide them with a complete picture – in real time – of their manufacturing operations.

Here are some of the top reasons Home & Lifestyle businesses make the switch from manual to automated resource management, forecasting and production scheduling across their manufacturing facilities:

1. Boost workforce productivity

Challenge: Without a clear view of all activities on the shop floor, the business struggles to optimize its assets, improve margins and accurately communicate lead times down the supply chain. As it scales up, the burden is put on skilled craftspeople to input data and carry out manual reporting, and although this helps to bridge the visibility gap, productivity suffers.

Solution: Using agile production scheduling and execution software solutions, Home & Lifestyle businesses gain the capabilities to build an accurate digital model of their manufacturing operations. They can collect foundational shop floor data and digitally provide job instructions and performance metrics to employees. At the same time, workers can be tracked by skill and, from the same interface, record certifications and performance data. All of this integrates directly with shop floor scheduling to plan training, identify labor requirements, balance capacity and increase productivity.

2. Model what-if scenarios and plan ahead

Challenge: Many inputs regarding resource capacity and performance are managed ad hoc as they are not automatically captured in a centralized system. This forces scheduling to create several manual, offline processes to meet production needs. Gaps in the information system prevent scenario planning and the business struggles to keep up with lead-time commitments.

Solution: By bringing together systems capturing labor and equipment resource capacity and performance data on one platform, management can gain real-time visibility into plant production and product availability. By digitally modelling all constraints in the supply chain and having full insight into the production pipeline, they can plan ahead and draw up what-if scenarios to mitigate delays and bottlenecks.

3. Make effective decisions

Challenge: Management lack insight into their operations across each of their different manufacturing sites as the systems don’t integrate. As a result, the company struggles to handle make-to-stock and make-to-order products as the product family grows and diversifies, and production schedules shift.

Solution: Automatic manufacturing data collection and integrated systems and business processes – across departments and manufacturing sites – allow the business to develop a common set of KPIs for performance management and model all constraints in the supply chain. Management benefit from real-time visibility of KPIs that are updated with each planning decision, a full view of plant production and product availability data, and robust planning capabilities. By tapping into up-to-date performance data, they can achieve high scheduling accuracy, accelerated re-planning and respond fast to market fluctuations.

4. Reduce production waste

Challenge: Production delays and information gaps create inaccurate lead times making it impossible to optimize resources, order in the right amount of raw materials and honor commitments to customers. Management struggle to determine how much of what, when, where to produce and what to promise customers on an operational planning level, and excess inventory goes to waste.

Solution: Integrated planning ensures that management have access to accurate product availability, allowing them to develop a clear approach to reducing waste and improving asset use. Because orders are produced on time by scheduling operations according to their due dates, businesses are able to produce the right amount at just the right time, preventing waste and making best use of resources.

5. Improve customer service

Challenge: The business lacks the agility and insight it needs to react quickly to market fluctuations and fulfill customer expectations with confidence. Scheduling issues across production sites lead to bottlenecks and delayed delivery dates. 

Solution: With a full view of all manufacturing operations and obligations, businesses can accurately communicate lead times to their retail distributors and customers, ensure production schedules stay on track and effectively manage expectations. At the same time, with agile production capabilities, they can handle unique consumer product configurations and material requirements to deliver customized products, quickly and efficiently to impress their customers every time.

Dassault Systèmes provides agile planning, scheduling and supply chain management capabilities in Perfect Production on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform to help Home & Lifestyle businesses turn productivity up and production waste down. Click here for more details and watch the video below.