Manufacturers face more challenges than ever before. Customers are demanding shorter lead-times, lower costs, and excellence in delivery. Already faced with reduced product life cycles, complex supply chains, and shrinking margins, most manufacturers struggle to respond. To succeed they need the flexibility to react quickly to such pressures. They need to gain visibility and fast, effective control of their entire business. They must identify and overcome the constraints that inhibit progress and establish how to optimise their business processes taking into account their customer service objectives.
A global approach is crucial for creating realistic, productive, and robust plans that fully synchronise production, logistics, materials, and resources across the whole business – from production cell to multi-plant management. Critical factors include business modelling, constraints, buffer management, synchronisation, collaboration, intelligent decision-support systems, and event management. And all of these elements must be integrated in a solution that enhances the organisation’s ability to set and achieve ambitious business and financial goals.
Experience in recent years has shown that reducing inventory allows businesses to be more responsive and flexible. The direct link between work-in-process and lead-time of manufacture demonstrates that there is a sound reason to eliminate inventory.
Moreover, inventory reduction helps...
Using the Reflex Finite Scheduler works orders can be dragged and dropped to re schedule and synchronise sub and final assemblies. The schedule will consider both current and future material availability together with WIP stock levels. Planners can use their operational knowledge to fully adjust and over write the proposed system schedule to achieve their desired plan. The scheduler will take into consideration the resource constraints of each work station.
