Production Software Features

4/23/15 6:00 AM

You’ve settled on the perfect production planning software, and you’re ready to jump into implementation. Though you know the process will take time, you want to do everything possible now so you can see the benefits of your new system as soon as possible. But how can you do it?

Production Software Features

The answer is through proper employee software training. When an employee knows how to accurately access and manage your production planning software, you face fewer hiccups with the system in the future.

Software Overview Demonstration

Holistically introduce your employees to your new production planning software. Demonstrate the basic functions of the software assuring that all know how to employ the system at its baseline levels. Encourage an active, tactile learning experience by calling on employees to help illustrate the system’s functions.

Split Your Team Into Factions

Features for Production Planning Software After a basic software overview, begin to specialize your team’s training according to department. Oftentimes production planning software will touch sales, customer service, operations management, quoting, engineering, production and inventory control, scheduling, expediting, planning, quality control, operations, maintenance, and shipping and receiving. Assure that there is at least one employee from each department who knows the system well enough to act as a liaison for other departments.

Teach Appropriate Methods for Data Input

Before implementation, you should have sat down with your software provider to craft a sample scheduling model. You should have also determined exactly how your company will feed data to the system on an on constant basis.

We recommend manually entering static data that is lacking in your ERP into the ERP if possible. This includes shop floor machines and work centers. Data that changes frequently, such as inventory balances or production reporting data, can be likely already transferred electronically to the production planning system through some type of an interface.

Once these details are all ironed out, begin training your teams accordingly within their departments.

Create and Adjust Production Plans

After employee roles have been defined, make an effort to get all employees who will be working with the production planning software to be comfortable with effectively running the system on their own. Once they have proven their comfort, they can move into the phases of advanced production planning training.

Employ What-if Scenarios

When employees feel comfortable enough to move into the more advanced levels of training, begin incorporating what-if scenarios to test their ability to respond to different circumstances. You could hypothetically add a new piece of equipment into the mix or extend the length of a product’s floor life. This will allow the employee to feel more relaxed with making large scale scheduling changes.

If training is performed properly, your employees will feel a new sense of ease with your production planning system. However, it is also important that your employees feel they have the ability to ask questions when needed.

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 APS Resources

Topics: Implementation, Advanced Planning and Scheduling, PlanetTogether, production planning, Implementation, APS, APS, enterprise resource planning

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