Tag: APS Software

The Hard Truth About MRP Software – Silos, Delays, and Broken Promises
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Ask anyone handling production planning in a complex manufacturing environment what their greatest obstacles to success are. If they’re being honest, you’ll probably hear common complaints like these:

“The organization is too siloed. Departments that should be working together don’t seem capable of collaborating.”

“Sales keeps promising delivery dates we can’t meet. I know we need to be competitive to win the order, but we can’t just conjure up capacity out of thin air.”

“We can’t seem to stick to the production schedule. Even when we think we’re being totally realistic, we still seem to find a way to miss delivery dates. It’s hurting our credibility with customers.”

While these may all sound like “people” complaints, the answer to these challenges does not lie in your human resources department.

In this post, we’re going to dive into why the software you use to manage your manufacturing production may lie at the root of your problem. The good news is that you don’t need to replace any of your people to turn things around. You don’t even need to replace your current systems. Like all production environments, you just need the right tool for the job.

The Planning Gap in Modern Manufacturing

When Materials Resource Planning (MRP) was introduced in the 1960’s it was heralded as the answer to solving the perennial problem of not having the right inventory available at the right time. Keep in mind that Just-in-Time replenishment and Lean Manufacturing principles were still just a twinkle in the eye of a couple of manufacturing engineers at Toyota in Japan. Manufacturers also had fewer challenges finding people that wanted to work in a factory, so people resources weren’t as constrained as they are today.

Advancements have been made, such as the integration of MRP into ERP. This eliminated some of the time-intensive, error-prone double entry bookkeeping that plagued manufacturers in the early days. Nevertheless, MRP systems still suffer from several critical shortcomings:
- MRP decouples supply and demand at every level in the bill of materials. Each level is kept in loose alignment based on the due date of the production order and the static lead time of the part. This decoupling causes the following issues in today’s manufacturing
  - When MRP was first introduced, inventory was considered solely as an asset, the same as cash. Inventory could be used to buffer against this variability at every level of the bill of material, further decoupling the manufacturing process. Then Lean and JIT came along and taught manufacturers the real cost of inventory. As inventory was leaned out of the system, MRP became responsible for managing a level of variability and synchronization it was never designed to handle.
  - Manufacturing environments are, by their nature, tightly coupled dynamic environments. MRP obfuscates this with no direct line of sight between a miss or delay at any lower-level purchase order or production order and the end customer order.
  - Synchronization is envisioned as being carried out through approval of MRP action messages that redate the hundreds or thousands of decoupled production orders to bring their dates into alignment. I have yet to be in a manufacturing environment where production orders are kept in alignment using this process.
- MRP still assumes infinite capacity. Largely this means that MRP is producing an infeasible schedule without insights on where existing or emerging bottlenecks are within the production process. To learn how to address this challenge, check out our blog post on finite capacity planning.
- Since MRP does not consider resource capacity, it can do very little to help the manufacturer identify and manage capacity constraints. Without finite capacity planning, MRP is at odds with creating the pull-based manufacturing processes envisioned by methodologies like Theory of Constraints and Lean Manufacturing.
- MRP plans in daily buckets and often does not prioritize work on resources at any level lower than day. This further erodes MRP’s ability to synchronize operations in today’s manufacturing environments. Ensuring priority alignment between every step in the routing and every level in the bill of materials is critical to flow and throughput. MRP wasn’t designed for this reality and therefore can’t remain responsible for orchestrating today’s planning and scheduling.
The bottom line is that MRP systems were designed for manufacturing as it was 60+ years ago, not for the manufacturing of today. This is why most manufacturers today are using MRP to launch production orders and purchase orders, but are carrying out scheduling via spreadsheets. If you’re still using spreadsheets, you might want to go check out our 7 tips for moving away from them.

Decoupled Systems, Decoupled Teams

As anyone who has ever worked in manufacturing knows, collaboration between teams is critical. Even those who rarely set foot on the factory floor, such as your sales and customer service teams, need to be on the same page with production. Since MRP offers limited visibility into factory capacity or order progress, these silos cost the manufacturer time, money, and reputation. Here are a few examples of how lack of visibility creates chaos throughout the organization:

Misaligned Production – In dynamic markets, production priorities can change quickly, but MRP systems do very little to maintain alignment of priorities. Valuable time is lost as planners work to adapt schedules

Manual Interventions – If the change is significant, production teams may be asked to stop working to wait for the new orders. Downtime can cost manufacturers thousands of dollars per hour, but continuing to produce items that are no longer needed can be just as expensive. Once a new schedule is created, it must also be manually communicated to production teams so that work can be started again.

Poor Customer Service – As production disruptions and changing priorities impact the production schedule, it almost always causes some orders to slip. Customers may not find out about the delay until they call to check the status of their order after the delivery date has passed. While the delay might have been acceptable if they were informed ahead of time, they now have to adapt their plans to the new schedule on short notice.

Inaccurate Delivery Promises – Meanwhile, sales continues to provide delivery dates according to whatever standard lead times they were given. (Or based on what they think they need to promise to get the order.) At best, without visibility into capacity, they have no idea whether the promised dates can be met.

Some manufacturers try to break down silos with weekly or biweekly Sales and Operations planning meetings. These can be time-consuming, painful meetings. Worse yet, given the dynamic nature of complex manufacturing environments, any benefits are short-lived.

APS: Purpose Built for Complex Manufacturing

Advanced Planning and Scheduling systems (APS), like SyncManufacturing® from Synchrono®, are designed to help production planners and schedulers optimize production to meet demand. Unlike traditional MRP solutions, APS takes into consideration capacity constraints (also known as finite capacity planning) as well as inventory availability and dynamically calculated lead times – and in real time. This means sales knows what it can promise to customers. (No more excuses!)

When schedules change, SyncManufacturing automatically aligns all resources through every level of the bill of materials. The impact of the change is known to everyone in the environment. Operators always know the priority of the work assigned to them, production supervisors automatically know the urgency of work within cells. In addition, procurement knows any changes in priority they need to communicate to their suppliers and sales and customer service can proactively reach out to their customers if there is a positive or negative change to their expected delivery.

SyncManufacturing can also help production managers identify the real constraints in their production environment. These constraints can be leveraged using a patented scheduling algorithm called CONLOAD^TM to create the type of pull system envisioned in Theory of Constraints and Lean Manufacturing.

Finally, SyncManufacturing, through automated allocation processes, establishes the direct links and tight coupling between production orders at all levels of the bill of materials. This allocation brings the digital model in alignment with the highly connected manufacturing environments of today. The impact of a missed purchase order delivery or a machine breakdown is known instantly throughout the entire value stream allowing informed decision-making on how to resolve or clear visibility to inform the customer if a delivery will be missed.

Add the Right Tool to Your Manufacturing Toolbox

SyncManufacturing provides real-time integration into existing ERP systems, including MRP. So, as we said at the beginning of this post, manufacturers do not typically need to replace their current software, including their MRP systems, to take advantage of SyncManufacturing. Think of it as adding one tool to your toolbox that you never knew you always needed.

To learn more, reach out to us. You can contact us with questions or request a demo below.

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June 18, 2025
Finite Capacity Planning: The Key to Meeting Customer Expectations
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In competitive markets, meeting customer commitments is critical. If resources like inventory, people, and equipment were always readily available, consistently delivering on time wouldn’t be such a challenge. The difficulty is that nearly all manufacturing operations have constraints. In this post, I will drill down into finite capacity planning, how it helps manufacturers live up to their promises, and how to get started.

What Are Resource Constraints?

As the name suggests, finite capacity planning considers resource constraints when scheduling production to meet customer demand. Work centers, machines, and labor can all be defined as the “resources” necessary to perform a manufacturing operation on an item’s routing. Because these operations take time and the number of resources is not unlimited, each resource has a finite capacity (ability to do work) that constrains its throughput.

However, for a given mix of demand, there is always one resource that limits the throughput of the entire factory. This is referred to as the constraint. When the capacity of the constraint resource exceeds the demand, we say the constraint is the market (or the sales team). As positive as that sounds, idle resources do not make for profitable operations. On the other hand, if demand exceeds capacity, the business is vulnerable to supply chain variability and other unforeseen events.

Ideally, demand and capacity would be relatively equal, but since we don’t live in an ideal world, planners need visibility into constraints so they can optimize plant performance. They also need to be able to share this information easily with those who interface with customers so they can avoid overpromising and underdelivering. It’s stressful enough when demand exceeds capacity. Promising unrealistic delivery dates to customers makes it so much worse!

Are You Using Finite Capacity Planning?

It’s not a question of whether you’re using finite capacity planning – it’s a question of at what levels you’re making capacity-planning decisions. Operations know if a schedule is achievable and will make adjustments if it is not realistic.

However, if finite capacity planning is only happening at the operational level, you’re bound to disappoint either your customers or your executives (or both). In manual systems with low visibility, floor personnel often make decisions about what to work on based on what seems important to them, because they don’t have visibility into what is most important to the business. Furthermore, their decisions can alter resource capacity. When that information does not automatically flow through the organization, planners and customer-facing teams are often left in the dark about changes to timelines and available resource capacity.

Here’s the bottom line for operational finite capacity planning: When demand is greater than your capacity, on-time delivery performance will be at risk. When capacity is greater than demand, you’re leaving profit on the table. In that sense, the goal of finite capacity planning is to maximize profit by balancing demand with capacity.

MRP Does Not Use Finite Capacity Planning

Plenty of salespeople talk about MRP as though it is a finite capacity planning tool, so this needs to be said: MRP does not use finite capacity planning. MRP calculations provide start dates for manufacturing orders, assuming they will be completed according to each item’s lead time. However, Little’s Law (throughput = WIP / lead time) says that for a fixed capacity (throughput), lead time changes depending on the WIP level, and MRP does nothing to keep WIP stable. When lead time is assumed to be constant regardless of the WIP level, that is infinite capacity planning.

Finite Capacity Planning Is Not Pull Production

This is another common misconception. While finite capacity planning provides dynamic start and completion dates for manufacturing operations based on resource capacity, it is not the same as pull production! Pull production is a technique for releasing manufacturing orders to the shop floor that aims to stabilize WIP, achieve maximum throughput, and increase lead time confidence. Common pull production methods include kanban, CONWIP, and Synchrono’s patented CONLOAD™. Although they are distinct, combining finite capacity planning and pull production results in a more stable schedule than using either method alone.

What’s the Fastest Way to Implement Finite Capacity Planning?

At its simplest, finite capacity planning means setting start and end times that do not overlap for each manufacturing operation at a resource. The different strategies of finite capacity planning all set the sequence of work differently. Some options include ordering by due date, prioritizing by shortest processing time, or by whichever customer or salesperson is most vocal on a given day. (Unfortunately, the last method is the most common in our experience!)

One way to quickly implement finite capacity planning is choosing a software that supports finite capacity planning strategies. SyncManufacturing enriches these strategies by integrating with your ERP system and having finite capacity planning capabilities such as Detailed Sequencing. Detailed Sequencing creates finite schedules for factory resources and calculates a “cycle consumption percentage” for each operation, indicating how past-due or ahead of schedule it is. For example, if Item A has a lead time of two weeks and Item B has a lead time of four weeks, but both items start work at the same resource, the first operation at Item B will have a higher cycle consumption percentage than Item A and will be prioritized first. SyncManufacturing combines this with the operation’s expected availability date to generate the finite schedule, which can be manually adjusted if desired.

Advanced planning and scheduling (APS) systems, such as SyncManufacturing, include and expand on finite capacity scheduling by including an order release algorithm to implement pull production and modules to manage material constraints and shortages. Through dashboards and alerts, other areas of the business have visibility into the schedule, e.g., sales can immediately give realistic delivery dates to their customers. To learn more about the impact of Advanced Planning and Scheduling software (APS) on the rest of the organization, read: The Ripple Effect of Implementing APS.

If this sounds like something that would help streamline your operations and increase profitability, you’re in good company! Contact us and request a demo to learn more about how SyncManufacturing can assist you with finite capacity planning and much more.

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June 3, 2025
7 Tips for Moving Away from Production Planning Spreadsheets

Production planners and schedulers can get pretty attached to their spreadsheets. Even if they don’t work as well as they’d like, chances are, they’ve invested dozens, if not hundreds, of hours into getting them to work well enough to offer some benefit. Although the advantages of an Advanced Planning and Scheduling (APS) implementation are compelling, leaving those spreadsheets behind can be a bit overwhelming and stressful.

To help ensure a smooth and stress-free transition, here are seven practical tips for replacing your production and planning spreadsheets with an APS application:

#1 Start with a thorough pre-implementation assessment.

This assessment should include both technical and cultural readiness. On the technical side, the team needs to determine how much of the production process is defined in existing bills of material and routing processes. In some companies this information exists mainly as “tribal knowledge.” If that’s the case in your organization, you will need to formalize and define the details in your existing ERP system. Spreadsheet data is unstructured, so no matter how well-maintained it may be, it cannot be used by an APS system.

On the cultural side of the equation, you need to evaluate organizational commitment across many departments. Manufacturing is a connected process, so APS isn’t just about production scheduling. Buyers need to maintain electronic purchase orders, engineers need to update and maintain bills of material and routings, the shop floor needs to execute to the structured schedule, and sales needs to commit to making realistic promises based on the capable-to-promise dates produced by the APS system. Finally, leadership needs to fully support the transition and step in, if necessary, to ensure all commitments are being met.

For more on the enterprise-wide impact of APS, read our recent post: The Ripple Effect of Implementing APS.

#2 Set clear objectives.

Ideally, you’ll want to set objectives before selecting an APS system as it can help the team make a better choice. Start by defining the top 3 to 5 improvements you want to achieve by implementing an APS system. Tangible, measurable objectives are best, such as improving on-time delivery, increasing throughput, reducing lead-times, and reducing expediting. If you decide to include less tangible objectives, such as reducing the chaos, make sure you have a clear understanding of what that looks like.

During objective setting, take the time to discuss where and how using spreadsheets for scheduling has hindered you from achieving these objectives. This can help the organization better grasp the need for change. Then, once you’ve selected a system, these objectives will help to focus the implementation and help you avoid scope creep. They will also allow you to measure the success of the implementation once it is complete.

#3 Assemble the right team.

As mentioned in tip #1, APS goes beyond scheduling, so it is essential to assemble a cross-functional team that includes planners, schedulers, purchasing, sales, engineering, materials, and shop floor supervisors. Ideally, everyone on the team will be enthusiastic about the project, but it is okay to have a few skeptics so long as they demonstrate an open mind and a willingness to keep the project moving forward toward the project objectives. Most critically, you’ll need a strong executive sponsor and an internal implementation lead with a good working knowledge of the business and a good rapport with other team members.

There are two types of team members to avoid. First are the complainers and skeptics who sit back, wanting others to prove everything to them before they lift a finger. (We’ve probably all seen the type!) Sadly, if the author of the spreadsheet you currently use seems overly proud (or defensive) of their creation every time it is mentioned, you may need to count them out as well. A strong executive leader and team leader with good people skills may be able to bring this latter type around. Either way, leadership should make it clear that the spreadsheets die once the system goes live.

#4 Identify implementation risks.

You’ve already overcome one of the greatest risks by assembling a team of individuals who are eager to see the project succeed. Now, you need to identify other potential risks that could derail your APS implementation. These risks could be related to data concerns, such as poor routing, incomplete bills of material, and inadequate inventory accuracy. Organizations that rely on spreadsheets typically fail to maintain the data in their ERP system. As mentioned in tip #1, you may need to take some time, filling in missing bills of material and routing information before implementing APS.

Other risks are more cultural. Some manufacturing enterprises have a “wild west” approach that adds to the chaos. APS can address that, but only if the organization is willing to change and embrace a structured approach to scheduling within the APS. You may want to assess the likelihood of resistance to change by department, e.g., the shop floor has a history of not adhering to production schedules or management support for projects has waned in the past. A frank conversation with senior leadership about likely risks can head off a lot of issues.

#5 Avoid scope creep.

Anyone who’s ever been involved in a complex implementation project is likely to be very familiar with the concept of scope creep. Going live as quickly as possible can provide early ROI and keep enthusiasm high, which in turn, encourages openness to change. If possible, make getting rid of spreadsheets entirely one of your first go-live objectives. That lowers the risk of backsliding. Then, backed by strong leadership, continue to drive incremental improvements that allow the team to reap further rewards.

#6 Invest in training.

Invest in sufficient training to ensure your staff is comfortable with the new software and can utilize its full potential. Training is especially important for spreadsheet users as they are being asked to make more significant changes to their daily work processes than most other roles. Business doesn’t stop during an APS implementation, and users are taking in a large amount of new information when learning the new system. Most of the learning of the new system is going to happen post-go-live. To ensure success, it’s important to have a plan for ongoing training during the first few months after the go-live date. Without continuous support, individuals may revert to old habits when faced with pressure for results, especially if they do not fully understand the new system. You need to train and re-enforce how to leverage the power of APS to ultimately reach success.

It is also critical to have an ongoing training plan as people will change roles and new people will come in with different ways of doing things. The last thing you want is for a new production planner or scheduler to bring in their spreadsheets and derail your progress. To keep spreadsheets out of production planning and scheduling systems and processes, thoroughly and quickly train replacements.

#7 Stay vigilant and look for continuous improvement opportunities!

In operations meetings, look for data points generated by or presented in spreadsheet format. Backsliding like this may be a sign that more training is needed if the user didn’t understand how to get the data out of the APS system. It can also be an opportunity for continuous improvement. A regular cadence of system reviews can help ensure your APS implementation is keeping up with the changing needs of the business.

We’re here to help!

Over the years, we’ve helped our clients win over hundreds of spreadsheet users. If you’re looking to address your production and scheduling challenges with an APS system, take the next step by scheduling a demo of SyncManufacturing®. Invite your spreadsheet users, too, so we can start answering their questions and help you get them on board early in the process.

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April 29, 2025
The Ripple Effect of Implementing APS
Advanced Planning and Scheduling (APS) software can dramatically simplify daily life for production planners and schedulers tasked with creating and optimizing production plans. However, the benefits of optimized production extend far beyond the role of production planning and scheduling. With the right tools, an advanced planning system can positively impact every corner of your enterprise, reshaping how teams collaborate, strategize, and operate.

How APS Drives Enterprise-Wide Performance Improvement

As manufacturing employees from the C-Suite to parts pickers can attest, an immense amount of time is often wasted by manual processes and tasks: checking factory capacity, quoting customer delivery, tracking order status, (re)prioritizing orders, expediting materials and orders, (re)promising delivery dates, and so on. Much of this wasted time is caused by factors such as:
- Production plans that aren’t aligned to demand
- Manual processes that can’t keep up with the business
- Inaccurate or out-of-date information
- Lack of visibility into production plans
- Miscues between departments
Implementing APS can address each of these challenges and more, allowing benefits to be realized almost immediately at every level of the organization.

Supply Chain/Procurement

An essential partner in production execution, it’s no surprise that this department has a lot to gain from an APS implementation. Procurement is responsible for getting the parts and raw materials to ensure the production plan can be carried out. Of course, they also need to better understand what will be required and by when so inventory levels and costs can be kept in check. APS systems support their efforts in several ways:
- Synchronizing procurement with the actual, capacity-constrained production scheduling aligns material replenishment with scheduled usage, helping to keep inventory levels low.
- Procurement has visibility into prioritized item shortages, making it easier for them to adapt to changes in production schedules and effectively expedite orders as necessary.
- Soft pegging of purchase orders to shortages allows procurement to quickly identify the demand(s) driving the shortages and the purchase orders necessary to supply them.
- Capable-to-promise dates (CTPD) are fully vetted for capacity and materials. This prevents unrealistic promises from being made that put pressure on procurement and add unnecessary costs.
- Expedite and slide signals are tied directly to the finite production schedule, so procurement is automatically notified.
Sales

To drive customer satisfaction, sales and production must work together. Unfortunately, that relationship is often strained due to lack of visibility into production capacity and status. Sales has a lot to gain from an APS implementation, including:
- CPTD are based on real-time production capacity and material availability. This allows sales to immediately provide reliable delivery date commitments, making sales cycles shorter and more efficient.
- CPTD are kept in alignment with current manufacturing resources, and sales is notified should an order begin to slip.
- Real-time, self-serve order status visibility vastly reduces the number of emails, phone calls, and chats with production control, making everyone more efficient and effective.
- Increased visibility and ability to meet delivery commitments builds customer trust and satisfaction.
- When material or capacity contention exists between two or more orders, visibility into constraints turns decision-making into a strategic rather than tactical approach and helps align decisions to corporate objectives.
Production Operations

Employee turnover is costly, so a manufacturing environment that functions like a well-oiled machine is an excellent employee retention asset. Here are a few ways those on the factory floor benefit from APS:
- A real-time priority (dispatch) list keeps the shop floor in perfect alignment with the current schedule.
- Expedite signals are automated, limiting the need for expediters because the operators already know when a job should be expedited.
- Production workers have upstream visibility, so they know when work will arrive.
- They also have visibility into work in the queue and ready to process. There is no need to guess what to work on next!
- Implementing an APS system drives documentation, e.g., production processes, primary and alternate resources, and estimated run and setup times. This documentation drives agreement, aids in process optimization and improvement, and shortens learning cycles for new employees.
Production Control

Production control managers play a pivotal role in ensuring manufacturing operations are carried out efficiently, on time, and within budget. APS software helps them by:
- Prioritizing the preparation of production documentation (drawings, work orders, quality plans, etc.) based on the finite production schedule.
- Providing a gating schedule to plan and execute gating/release of work to the shop floor based on the production pull.
Engineering

Engineering often gets overlooked when discussing APS benefits, but for Engineer-to-Order environments or highly engineered products, APS drives real benefits for this group as well.
- Less time is wasted because production support activities are tied directly to the finite production schedule, ensuring they are properly prioritized and timed.
- Engineers have visibility into the status of items, so they know which items are impacted by engineering changes and they don’t waste time making unneeded changes to obsolete items.
Quality Control

A critical component of the production workflow for complex manufacturing, APS benefits for the QC/QA department include:
- The ability to link non-conformances to work for visibility, prioritization, and schedule impact.
- Prioritization of incoming inspection work ensures urgent items are identified and addressed first.
Executive Leadership

With real-time visibility across the entire enterprise, executives can make more informed strategy decisions and ensure support for business objectives. For example:
- APS provides insights into enterprise capabilities and future business projects, giving executives the information to make key decisions on where to invest to ensure they can meet present and future demand.
- Prioritization rules that support the strategic goals of the enterprise can be embedded into APS workflows.
- APS provides tools to direct continuous improvement activities that will yield the highest benefits to the organization.
Information Technology (IT)

Last but not least, APS benefits the IT department, which is often tasked with implementing and supporting operational technologies.
- APS allows IT to leverage investments in existing IT solutions, such as ERP.
- APS provides additional capabilities that deliver hard returns for manufacturing and supply chain operations.
- Once implemented, APS requires little IT intervention beyond general server maintenance.
Explore the Benefits of Better Prioritization

Prioritization is a critical manufacturing operational strategy. When production plans are properly prioritized, this results in the ripple benefits we’ve talked about in this post. In an upcoming post, we’ll dig deeper into how APS helps focus the enterprise on critical priorities to keep everyone on track.

In the meantime, we invite you to learn more about how APS can help your business by reaching out to us. We’re happy to answer your questions. If you’d like to see APS in action, we can set up a demonstration of SyncManufacturing^®, our patented planning and scheduling tools that can help you tackle even the most unique, complex production processes with clarity, control, and confidence.

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March 12, 2025
The Role of Algorithms in Production Planning and Scheduling

By: John Maher | January 20, 2025 | 7 min read

In my last post, I talked about the challenges of using spreadsheets to manage production planning and scheduling in complex manufacturing. Some of you have probably experienced those challenges first-hand, but if you want to read that post, you can access it here. If you’re ready to move beyond manual processes, today I will explore APS software further and dig deeper into algorithms, the logic behind Advanced Planning and Scheduling (APS) software.

What is an Algorithm?

In its broadest sense, an algorithm is a set of rules or a step-by-step procedure for performing a task or solving a problem. Algorithms are fundamental to all aspects of computer science from artificial intelligence, databases, and encryption to search engines, data compression, and optimization problems. It’s their ability to solve optimization and synchronizations problems that makes them so critical for advanced production planning and scheduling.

The Difference Between Algorithms and Formulas

When you talk to colleagues about replacing your production planning spreadsheets with APS software, someone will likely ask: “Can’t you just do that in Excel?” (If they don’t ask, they’re probably thinking it.) Before I answer that question, though, it’s helpful to understand the difference between an algorithm and a formula.

Although they can be very sophisticated, formulas are essentially equations designed to calculate a value. Algorithms can encompass formulas, but they also include logical structures such as loops and conditional statements, which are not part of formulas. Algorithms are also designed to outline the entire process of reaching a solution, including decision-making and iterative computation.

You can create algorithms in Excel, but anything that rises to the sophistication of a production scheduling function usually requires using Excel’s Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) programming environment. VBA expertise may be a handy skill to have, but creating your own algorithms means taking on the task of continually updating and debugging the algorithms as the business changes.

With off-the-shelf software, hundreds or even thousands of customers are funding the vendor’s investment in the resources necessary to keep the application up-to-date and error-free. As we discussed in my last blog post, APS software also makes adapting to unforeseen events, like a new order or unexpected bottleneck, a lot faster and easier as the vendor builds adaptability into the application. Plus, you don’t have to worry about your one VBA expert leaving the organization. Reputable software companies like Synchrono leverage proactive succession planning and adhere to enterprise software development best practices, ensuring continuity and minimizing intellectual property risks.

A Deeper Dive into APS Algorithms

The type of algorithm required is largely based on the complexity of the flow or routing in your manufacturing environment. If the flow is relatively simple, e.g., a limited number of process steps or a similar flow for all products in the value stream, then optimization techniques such as Linear Programming, Genetic Algorithms, and Constraint Programming are appropriate.

Manufacturing environments with more complex routing, many dependent resources, and highly variable flows from product to product require an alternative approach. Heuristic algorithms are a good example. Without going too deeply into the topic, heuristic algorithms are designed to find good enough solutions to a complex problem when finding the perfect (or at least optimal) solution would be too resource intensive. In other words, heuristic algorithms and hybrid variations thereof are often used when traditional optimization would take too long to provide an optimized answer.

Heuristic algorithms also address the challenge of convergence. That is, the more complex the flow, the more variables and, thereby, possible solutions. This forces the algorithm to end further from convergence on the optimal solution. Optimization algorithms that don’t converge on the optimal solution can vary widely from run to run without any of the data changing. As every production planner can attest, having a very good schedule that is also stable is far more critical in a complex manufacturing environment than creating optimized solutions that are highly variable from run to run.

Furthermore, adding in convergence points, such as welding or assembly where multiple items are combined, requires a heavier focus on the synchronization of parts than optimization of individual resources. Without synchronization, a lot of time is wasted at convergence points waiting for parts that were not optimized for upstream resources to run when they were needed.

Why Not Take the Proven Path?

Obviously, we’ve just scratched the surface when it comes to discussing how algorithms are used to synchronize resources and optimize production schedules. I’m sure we have readers who are hungry for more details, but a lot of you are probably wondering whether you can just skip the lecture series on this topic and still benefit from APS.

The good news is, you can. Our APS solution, SyncManufacturing^®, is a patented APS application designed for complex manufacturing that utilizes many different types of algorithms to optimize production scheduling. During implementation, we’ll work with you to make sure the system applies the most effective algorithms to derive stable, workable production schedules that help you meet your customer commitments while maintaining the agility needed to respond to whatever comes next. No programming of algorithms needed!

To learn more, reach out to us or schedule a demo.

January 21, 2025
Will 2025 be the Year You Finally Ditch the Spreadsheets?

It’s January 2025, and many of the manufacturers I know are still neck-deep in strategic and operational planning. They need to get better at meeting customer commitments this year. They need to cut waste. They need to trim costs. They need to cut lead times to remain competitive. Most of all, they need to cut down on the day-to-day chaos that defines their world.

Sound familiar? No matter what business you are in, things happen fast in our hyper-competitive, 24X7X365 world. Chances are good that at least one of the goals I listed above applies to you and your organization.

3 Reasons Your Spreadsheets Aren’t Working

Are you still managing production using spreadsheets? If so, you’re not alone. I see many manufacturers that rely on MRP for purchase and work orders and use spreadsheets for scheduling. Sometimes, these spreadsheets are sophisticated marvels of formulaic engineering. Other times, not so much. Either way, they all suffer from the same shortcomings:

#1 Spreadsheets are limited in scope.

Production-oriented spreadsheets are typically created to optimize resources individually without knowledge of how their localized decisions impact the flow of the overall value stream. For all but the simplest of facilities, it is impractical for production planners and managers to do the necessary calculations and work to optimize the entire business. When there are interdependencies between resources, and the number of resources in the production flow is greater than three or four, production planning via spreadsheets becomes virtually pointless. We will get into this more in my next post when I go deeper into the algorithms that power advanced planning and scheduling.

#2 Spreadsheets can’t handle large datasets.

If your manufacturing environment is complex, datasets can get large fast. Optimized planning and scheduling require taking into account material shortages, machine capacity, planned production, available labor, alternate resources, tooling, non-conformances, and other such variables. This level and volume of data along with the complexity of orchestrating a schedule from it is largely unfeasible for a spreadsheet. Even if the equations and potentially algorithms are successfully designed, the spreadsheet will be cumbersome and largely non-performant.

#3 Spreadsheets aren’t real-time.

By their nature, updating spreadsheets is typically a batch function. Given the speed at which complex manufacturers operate, data quickly can go stale, leaving the schedules generated from them behind and ineffective. If the production flow is at all complex, it can be difficult to keep up with the dynamic changes for even one resource or product line. Unless you can manage the variability, you cannot eliminate the chaos.

There are many areas of the business where spreadsheets are helpful, but they were not made to manage production in complex manufacturing environments, let alone address supply chain variability and ever-changing market demands facing today’s manufacturers. So, let’s turn to a tool that is: Advanced Planning and Scheduling, or APS.

What is Advanced Planning and Scheduling (APS) Software?

You’re probably already using some sort of software to manage your business, most likely an ERP system with a few operations modules installed, e.g., sales order processing, production, material requirements planning (MRP), and so on.

That’s a good start. ERP systems track which customers want what products and by when. If your ERP system includes MRP, it will tell you which materials need to be ordered. If your system is good, it may even provide insights into which jobs need to be prioritized and when your materials need to arrive in order to meet the promised timelines. (But realistically, we’re already getting into spreadsheet territory for a lot of ERP users.)

Advanced Planning and Scheduling (APS) software takes over where ERP/MRP systems leave off by synchronizing the operational elements of your business to make sure that the right materials are where they need to be at the right time to make the right products. APS is also designed to ensure everyone on the operational side of the business is working on the right jobs.

If you’re thinking of implementing continuous improvement strategies over the course of the year, e.g., lean, six sigma, theory of constraints (TOC), etc., APS can help with that too. Without APS, these methods often fail as manual implementation of these approaches to production management just can’t keep up.

Gain Clarity, Control, and Confidence

By moving beyond spreadsheets and leveraging advanced technologies like APS, manufacturers can not only deliver industry-leading levels of customer satisfaction, but they can also promote a range of internal benefits, including less waste, lower costs, and an improved working environment.

Of course, you’ll want to look for an APS application that integrates easily with your existing ERP system. Once implemented, your APS system will become the defacto hub of your operations, helping to keep everyone on the same page and every element of the business synchronized on meeting your customer commitments.

With SyncManufacturing^® from Synchrono^®, you gain the clarity, control, and confidence needed to thrive in today’s fast-paced manufacturing landscape. Our solution can transform your approach to production planning and scheduling, with the visibility and insights needed to streamline operations and fill gaps that spreadsheets can’t. To learn more, contact us or request a private demo.

Next Up: The Role of Algorithms in APS

Advanced algorithms are the engine that drives APS applications, so in my next post, we’ll dig deeper into how they work. In the meantime, if you have questions, feel free to reach out to me. Until then, may this year be productive and profitable for everyone!

January 14, 2025

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