In modern manufacturing, companies are facing a wide range of challenges: products with many variants, fluctuating intake of orders, increasing customer requirements, and constant pressure to meet delivery deadlines while still producing cost-effectively. Common planning tools such as Excel quickly reach their limits. If you want to remain competitive today, you need precise, flexible, and transparent planning processes. This is exactly where detailed scheduling comes into play. But you may ask: How does it work? What advantages does it offer? And why is detailed scheduling so important for manufacturing companies and for efficient production?
Detailed scheduling involves detailed operational planning of production orders, machines, employees, and resources. It ties strategic planning carried out in Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), for example, with actual execution in the shop floor. During rough planning, customer orders, demand planning, and agreed delivery dates are used to identify the orders that must be processed in a specific week. Detailed scheduling then ensures that each order is executed on the best possible machine with all required resources and at precisely the right time thereby integrating all restrictions and dependencies that the ERP may not even be aware of. Furthermore, detailed scheduling focuses on efficiency and optimal resource utilization.
Detailed scheduling typically answers the following questions:
- When and on which machine are orders running?
- How are setup times minimized?
- How can bottlenecks be avoided or quickly resolved?
- Which employees with the required qualifications are available?
Detailed scheduling therefore is the tactical control instrument in production guaranteeing that all resources are used perfectly.
How does detailed scheduling work?
Detailed scheduling is a process comprising several steps thereby integrating and coordinating multiple factors. The main focus is on creating the best possible production plan from a large number of orders, machines, tools, and employees. The following steps are involved:
1. Collecting all relevant data:
In a first step, all relevant information is gathered, which means production orders, machine availabilities, material stocks, employees’ qualifications, etc. The planning must also include maintenance dates, shift plans, and delivery deadlines.
2. Integrating restrictions:
Every production process has its own specific restrictions: machine capacities, setup times, material availability, employee qualifications, or even the sequence of specific orders that must be respected. These factors are systematically included in detailed scheduling to create realistic and workable plans.
3. Prioritizing and optimizing:
Not all orders are equally important. Detailed scheduling evaluates and prioritizes orders according to their delivery date, urgency, or customer priority. The aim is to maximize on-time delivery while optimizing resource utilization. Intelligent algorithms and artificial intelligence (AI) help to find the best sequence and distribution of orders.
4. Simulating scenarios:
A particular advantage of modern detailed scheduling is the ability to simulate different scenarios. What happens if a machine breaks down? How does an urgent order affect the existing schedule? Simulations help companies to quickly react to unexpected events and generate alternative plans before bottlenecks or delivery delays occur.
5. Visualizing and communicating:
The results of detailed scheduling are visualized in clear Gantt charts or interactive planning boards. Changes and adjustments can directly be implemented. Once the plan has been released, it is automatically sent to all parties involved. The scheduled orders are displayed on the relevant machine terminals, for example.
Advanced Planning and Scheduling Systems (APS) like FEDRA help to simulate and visualize complex planning scenarios. (Image: MPDV)
Benefits of detailed scheduling for manufacturing companies
The implementation of a detailed scheduling system offers manufacturing companies many benefits that go far beyond mere time savings.
- Increasing on-time delivery:
Thanks to detailed scheduling, manufacturing companies can reliably deliver on time. Customer orders can be completed in a timely manner enhancing customer satisfaction and trust in the company. - Increasing transparency:
Modern detailed scheduling helps planners keep track of the current situation in production at all times. Bottlenecks, delays, or overloads are identified early on and can be addressed systematically. - Using resources optimally:
Machines, tools, and employees are deployed in the best possible way. Detailed scheduling ensures that resources do not remain unused thereby eliminating overloads. - Reducing setup and downtimes:
Smart sequence planning and integrated setup times minimize downtimes. Production runs more efficiently and with fewer interruptions. - Increased responsiveness:
Unexpected events such as machine failures or urgent orders can quickly be integrated in the planning process as needed. By simulating alternative scenarios, companies can proactively control production. - Basis for the Smart Factory:
Detailed scheduling is a key element on the way to the Smart Factory. It paves the way for end-to-end digital and networked production processes where everything is perfectly coordinated.
Detailed scheduling with Advanced Planning and Scheduling Systems (APS)
Many companies rely on specialized software solutions such as Advanced Planning and Scheduling Systems (APS) to deal with the complexity of modern manufacturing processes. These systems use intelligent algorithms to automate and optimize detailed scheduling. They factor in all restrictions and dependencies, calculate perfect sequences, and simulate different scenarios.
An APS usually interacts closely with the Manufacturing Execution System (MES) and the ERP system. The ERP takes on the long-term planning and management of orders while the MES is responsible for the operational control and data upload from the shop floor. The APS is the bridge between the two systems ensuring smooth coordination of all planning levels.
Best practice example: detailed scheduling at work
Users of MPDV’s planning solution APS FEDRA confirm the importance of detailed scheduling and what can be achieved with the suitable tool:
- After introducing automatic and AI-based production planning with APS FEDRA, Michael Wetzel-Staar, Production Manager at VACOM Vakuum Komponenten & Messtechnik GmbH, said: “Already when confirming the order, we can inform the customer of the exact delivery date of their customized component and we can actually meet that deadline. The quality of our deadlines will improve significantly.” VACOM typically processes about 1,200 orders at a time, each involving up to 20 operations. That makes two or three orders per machine and day with a planning horizon of six months.
- Marcus Pottendorfer, Head of Supply Chain Management at KLINGER Fluid Control GmbH is also enthusiastic about AI-based planning with APS FEDRA: “Thanks to the intelligent AI functionalities in FEDRA, all our operations are coordinated and planned with all constraints being factored in. This has resulted in a significant increase of +25% in the output of finished products.” To this end, Marcus Pottendorfer defined the specific target function of AI planning, which prioritizes customer orders, thereby laying the foundation for a solution that today has an impact far beyond KLINGER Fluid Control.
Conclusion: Detailed scheduling as the key to efficient production
Detailed scheduling is much more than just another planning tool. It is the conductor of modern manufacturing, harmonizing and controlling the many different players in production to achieve the common goal. By coordinating all resources in detail and taking all restrictions into account, companies can react flexibly to changes. This provides them with a decisive competitive advantage. Those who rely on detailed planning today are laying the foundation for efficient, transparent, and future-proof production — and thus for sustainable business success.