What is the most effective scheduling system for ETO/Project-based manufacturing?

Production scheduling systems can be freestanding tools or available as part of an ERP or MRP system. However, most scheduling systems – like most ERP/MRP systems – are designed for repetitive or discrete manufacturers. For ETO/project-based manufacturers, a project management system is often the more effective scheduling tool. Several good systems are available, but the best known and most widely used is Microsoft Project and this has become the de facto world standard. Most of the better ERP systems designed for ETO/project-based manufacturers have some level of integration with MS Project.

While MS Project is widely used, and many people are familiar with its general capabilities and with some of the charts and reports that can be produced by it, there is a substantial learning curve to utilizing it effectively, especially for tracking actual progress against a planned schedule. It is not an everyday tool like MS Excel, so the responsibility for running MS Project on a regular basis is best assigned to experienced users.

An alternative to running MS Project in-house is our PTS full-service approach.

Implementing a production scheduling system

It takes some time and effort to implement an effective production tracking and scheduling system, whether you decide to use our service or implement your own in-house system. The extent of the work will depend on the complexity of your production processes, the level of task detail required, the number of projects typically in progress at any one time, and how much process documentation already exists. Outsourcing much of this work to BW&A can be a cost-effective approach: our familiarity with the requirements for setting up a successful project scheduling system usually means that we will get the job done much more quickly than your own staff.

The benefits of an effective scheduling system will result in a significant and early payback on your investment in its set-up and implementation, with on-going returns into the future.

The need for accurate data

Accurate data is crucial to the success of a production scheduling system. We can assist you in implementing improved shop floor data collection systems that will provide accurate and timely data, will link to your production scheduling system, and will also provide the data needed for accounting and payroll purposes.

Contact BW&A for more information about how a production scheduling system will benefit your business and how we can improve your data collection systems.