Production & Capacity Planning and Scheduling Features

System

Capacity Bottleneck Identification Visual identification of activities that are delayed due to resource capacity limits	✔
Master Scheduler Users Users with the ability to adjust plans and schedules	✔
View-Only Users Users with the ability to view plans and schedules and (optionally) update production status	✔
That-If Users Users with View-Only ability plus the ability to create What-If Scenarios	✔
Data Limits (Plants, Orders, etc.) No limits (other than computer memory) on any data objects or records	✔
Visio® Process Flows Process flow diagrams built in Microsoft Visio® and integrated into the system to guide users and run functions	✔
Workspaces Tailored screen layouts optimized and customizable for user roles and functions	✔
Split-Screen and Multi-Screen Viewing See multiple views together on one screen or on multiple screens	✔

Constraint Management

Capacity Bottleneck Identification Visual identification of activities that are delayed due to resource capacity limits	✔
Material Bottleneck Identification Visual identification of activities that are delayed due to material availability limits	✔
Buffer Management Manage variability using buffers and monitoring buffer penetration	✔
Bottleneck Scheduling Schedule to automatically protect bottleneck resources from starvation to maximize output	✔
Flexible Gantt Labels Choose what is shown in the Gantt to see material shortages or other useful information	✔

Resource Scheduling

Machine Scheduling Schedules for equipment	✓
Labor Scheduling Schedules for individual people with various skills or groups of labor	✓
Tool Scheduling Schedule tool usage and compatibility with products and machines	✓
Maintenance Scheduling Coordinate maintenance schedules with production schedules	✓

Plan & Schedule Optimization

KPI Optimization Automatic schedule generation based on target Key Performance Indicators	✓
Multi-Factor Optimization Automatic schedule generation based on a combination of factors (such as setup time, priority, due-date, etc.)	✓
Multi-Plant Optimization Optimize all your plants together or separately	✓
CoPilot Optimization Automatic searching and proposed changes to existing Optimization Rules	✓
Cross-Plant Optimization Create plans and schedules that are synchronized and cross loaded between plants	✓
Fast Optimization Quickly create updated schedules for your needed order voume	✓
Productivity Optimization Optimize plans and schedules to maximize resource utilization and output	✓
Financial Optimization Optimize plans and schedules to based on financial measures such as: revenue, cost, profit, and cash flow	✓
Frozen Zone Create stability, protecting a portion of the schedule from being re-optimized	✓
Stable Span A secondary level of stability, protecting a less firm area of the schedule right after the frozen span	✓
Compress Automatic removal of gaps from the schedule	✓
Time Anchoring Preserve commitments, preventing specific Jobs and operations from being re-optimized	✓
Resource Locking Preserve manual resource assignments, prevenging specific operations from being re-assigned	✓
JIT Scheduling Automatic Just-in-time scheduling to reduce inventory	✓
Product and Operation Attributes Fully customizable attributes that allow advanced scheduling by number ranges, Employee Skill Level or Certification	✓
Custom scheduling rules Rules that are custom tailored to specialized needs, built in any Microsoft .Net language	✓

Scheduling Tools

Smart Drag-and-Drop Automatically adjust for operation precedence, material constraints, and capacity	✓
Activity Grids Reschedule from configurable grid views where all data can be easliy seen as desired	✓
Expedite Expedite of Jobs and Supplying Jobs and Material, moving other work out of the way as necessary	✓
Split/AutoSplit Divide a single operation across multiple resources or multiple days (manually or automatically)	✓
Unlimited Undo/Redo Multi-level Undo/Redo for schedule and data changes	✓
Clock Advance Automatic roll forward of unfinished work (preserving schedule sequence) as time passes	✓
Job Split/Join/AutoJoin Split and Join Jobs (manually or automatically)	✓
Multi-Planner Scheduling Simultaneous login and scheduling of multiple planners to facilitate collaboration	✓
Multi-Job Drag-and-Drop Reschedule groups of Jobs in one action	✓
Multi-Plant Schedule Visibility Schedule visibility of multiple plants	✓
Multi-Plant Schedule Coordination Syncrhonize material flows between vertically integrated plants	✓

Capacity Planning

Capacity Plan Graphical load to capacity view with adjustable detail level and filters	✓
Cross-Plant Capacity Planning Dynamically allocate production across plants to balance plant work loads	✓
Capacity Calendars Manage planned maintenance, shift schedules, and overtime schdules by Resource, Department, or Plant	✓
Time-dependent capacity eligibility Define resources as being eligible to perform work in the future when certfied or trained	✓

Order Management

Capable To Promise (CTP) Immediate date estimating for new orders for multi-level BOM products	✓
Order Alerts Visual indicators of custom order conditions with drill-down details	✓
Order Pegging View See material flow between Jobs to destination orders on one screen	✓
Job Statuses Track/sort/filter/color by various job statuses such as: Planned, Firm, Estimate, What-If, or Quote	✓
Job Watches Proactively manage high-value Jobs by creating individual Gantt's for each Watched Job	✓
Multi-Plant CTP Immediate date estimating for new orders for multi-level BOM products that are made by multiple plants	✓
CoPilot Insert Jobs Automatically schedule new orders to maximize KPIs without making other orders late	✓
Shop Dispatch and Reporting Real-time communication with the shop floor on schedule changes and work completions	✓
Auto Finish Automatically close operations at their scheduled time for workcenters where reporting is not desired	✓

Key Performance Indicators

KPI View Immediately know how schedule changes affect Key Performance Indicators	✓
Select best KPI Plan Choose from recent schedules to choose the one that delivers the best KPI values	✓
KPI Impact Immediate impact analysis on KPI for any schedule change	✓
Pre-defined KPI Approximately 40 different KPI in areas such as: productivity, financials, and customer delivery	✓
Custom KPI Create KPI tailored to your specific needs scripted with any Microsoft .Net language	✓

Scenarios

What-If Scenarios Unlimited Scenarios that can be easily created, saved, and compared by Master Schedulers or What-If Users	✓
Compare Scenarios Create and compare plan scenarios based on KPI to make better choices	✓
Scenario History Track scenarios over time to analyze trends and compare actual versus planned	✓
Live Scenario A scenario that can be worked on collaboratively by multiple planners	✓
Published Scenario A finalized scenario that can be shared throughout the company while a new plan is being constructed	✓
Short-Term Scenario Automatically remove long term data to focus on short-term scheduling	✓

Communication Tools

Visual Factory Hands-free shop floor viewing that cycles through screens automatically	✓
Real-time Schedules Automatic update of the schedule as work is completed or delayed	✓
Job and Operation Holds Place a Job, Manufacturing Order, or Operation on Hold until a set date	✓
Activity Comments Record and display comments related to scheduled jobs	✓
Flags Custom tailored visual alerts when special scheduling preferences are violated or need attention, scripted in any Microsoft .Net language	✓
Instant messaging Messaging between users	✓

Inventory & Distribution Planning

Inventory Plan View inventory projections by location with configurable grid views	✓
Inventory Alerts Visual indicators of custom inventory conditions with drill-down details	✓
Multi-Warehouse Inventory Planning Plan supply and demand of inventories in multiple warehouses	✓
Cross-Warehouse Material Coordination Synchronization of material flow across warehouses	✓
Purchase Order Planning Track Purchase Orders to ensure accurate scheduling of orders requiring material	✓
Sales Order Planning Track Sales Orders to ensure you are meeting customer delivery dates	✓
Express MRP High speed, unlimited depth BOM explosion with simultaneous capacity constraints, creating Jobs and P.O.'s	✓
Transfer Order Planning Track Transfer Orders between Warehouses and Plants for real-time inventory visibility	✓
Lot Tracking Lot tracking of material to enforce material and WIP shelf-life or usage level	✓
Safety Stock Reordering Automated creation of planned jobs and purchase orders when safety stock is depleted	✓
ByProducts and CoProducts Multiple products made by a single Job or Operation	✓
Batching Batch multiple demands into production jobs	✓

Analytics

Impact Analysis Immediately know how schedule changes affect other orders	✓
Order Management Analytics Track and predict order delivery performance	✓
Capacity Analytics Analyze load versus capacity	✓
Productivity Analytics Analytics focused on utilization, output and performance	✓
Financial Analytics Financial indicators	✓
Custom Analytics Create charts, grids, and composite dashboards	✓
Web and Mobile Analytics Access information from PlanetTogether, Web, and tablets	✓
Analytic E-mails Subscribe to analytics to receive charts and measures via e-mail	✓

Resource Constraints

Finite Capacity Scheduling (FCS) Avoid scheduling more work in a period than the actual capacity allows	✓
Infinite Capacity Scheduling Fixed lead-time scheduling at a resource, independent of workload	✓
Capability Work Assignment Flexible means of specifying which types of work a resource can perform	✓
Multi-Tasking Resources Resources that can work on multiple Jobs at the same time but are limited to how many Jobs they can work on	✓
Multi-Resource Scheduling Simultaneous (finite) scheduling of machines, tooling and labor on one activity	✓
Manual Scheduling Overrides Allow editing Operaiton data and preserve edits during future imports	✓
Post Process Time Extra time delay (such as drying), either consuming the resource or not	✓
Subcontract Operations Schedule subcontract work, tied to buy-direct purchase orders.	✓
Batch Scheduling processing of multiple jobs on one resource at the same time (similar to an oven)	✓
Tank scheduling Reserve tank capacity until the tank is emptied	✓
Sequence-dependent Setup Time Setup time that depends on product attributes for sequentially run products	✓
Manual-only Resources Resources that can only be assigned manually, not by the system	✓
Product Rules Resource preferences and run rates that avery by the type of product being made on different resources	✓
Transfer Time Minimum delay times between operations (dry, transfer, etc.)	✓
UDF Scheduling User-defined fields to drive scheduling or to display	✓
Custom Rules Special constraints tailored to your exact needs	✓
Custom Constraints Custom tailored speciality planning constraints scripted in any Microsoft .Net language	✓
Custom Timings Custom tailored operation times scripted in any Microsoft .Net language	✓

Material Constraints

Raw Material Constraints Constrain activity start times based on availability of raw material	✓
WIP Material Constraints Constrain start times based on availability of work-in-process inventory	✓
Compatibility Scheduling Dependency between resources working on different jobs	✓
Material Overlap Schedule a job to start before the WIP material is completely finished	✓

Flow Constraints

Alternate Path Scheduling Manual accomodation of alternate ways of producing the same product	✓
Automatic Alternate Path Scheduling Automatic selection of alternate ways of producing the same product	✓
Operation Overlap Schedule a successor operation to start before the predecessor is completely finished	✓
Resource Connectors Material flow rules limiting which resources can be seleted based on the resource performing the preceding step	✓
Cellular scheduling Scheduling to keep all operations for a job in the same production cell	✓
Max-delay Scheduling Maximum delay times between operations (shelf-life, etc.)	✓
Keep Successors Automatically keep operations on the same resource as the preceding step	✓

Integration

Integration Wizard Easy setup and automation of data imports	✓
Web Services Directly submit information and trigger actions from another program	✓
Real-time file loading Immediate reading of custom text files to drive data import or other actions	✓
SAP ERP Integration SAP ERP Integration	✓
SAP Business One Integration SAP Business One Integration	✓
SAP ByDesign Integration SAP ByDesign Integration	✓
Microsoft AX Integration Microsoft AX Integration	✓
Microsoft NAV Integration Microsoft NAV Integration	✓
Microsoft GP Integration Microsoft GP Integration	✓
Oracle ERP Integration Oracle ERP Integration	✓
QAD Integration QAD Integration	✓
Sage MAS 500 Integration Sage MAS 500 Integration	✓
Sage MAS 90/200 Integration Sage MAS 90/200 Integration	✓
Escape Velocity Systems O2 Integration Escape Velocity Systems O2 Integration	✓
Vicinity Manufacturing Integration Vicinity Manufacturing Integration	✓
Microsoft SQL Server Integration Microsoft SQL Server Integration	✓
Excel Integration Excel Integration	✓
ODBC Integration ODBC Integration	✓

Alerts & Reports

E-Mail Subscriptions Subscribe to analytics to receive charts and measures via e-mail	✓
Grid Alerts Custom alerts on jobs and inventory with real-time drill-down	✓
My Suggestions Custom tailored lists of messages that can be scripted in any Microsoft .Net language	✓
Grid Layouts User-configured grids that filter, sort and show information as desired	✓
Job Report Report for late jobs	✓
Schedule Reporting Report for daily schedule	✓
Performance Reporting Report for resource performance	✓
Custom Reports Reporting database for ad-hoc reporting	✓
Custom Views Screens that are purpose-built to your special needs and written in any Microsoft .Net language	✓