If you think changing ERP systems will
fix your
production problems?
fix your
production problems?
Think again.
What do these ERP systems all have in common?
Their users all use Excel to manage production!
You invested time and money into an ERP system to help you better manage production, and you end up using Excel and other tools instead of your ERP system. What's up with that?
It's not the ERP's fault! It does exactly what is supposed to do
The problem is the model on which the software is based. It assumes a perfect world, and the world needs to be perfect for it to work as designed.
The perfect world model has two steps:
Step 1 - Create a Good Plan
Step 2 - Execute the plan
- Estimated production time = Actual time needed
- Calculated capacity = Available Capacity
- Supplier's promised delivery dates = Actual Delivery Dates
- Jobs are taking a longer or shorter time to process
- People called in sick
- Materials didn't show up
- Machines are offline or operating slower than expected
- Tooling broke
With so many variables, the plan quickly falls apart, leaving people to make their own judgment calls. To stay on track, you re-run the schedule—only to find that everything has changed again!
How can you manage production or maintain credibility when things keep shifting? No wonder you turned to Excel—it’s simpler to handle the chaos and imperfect data outside "the system" than to spend hours figuring out why it keeps reshuffling priorities.
- Put more time and resource into gathering better and more accurate information?
- Invest in better people, perhaps a more experienced scheduler or production manager would do a better job?
- How about taking more variables into consideration as part of your planning process? But that just adds complexity!
- Maybe it is time to look for a new ERP system!
Stop addressing just the symptoms! Focus on the root cause.
Rather than chasing perfect estimates and endless improvement efforts to eliminate variability, shift to a model built to handle the real-world chaos and constant changes.
Introducing the Dynamic Production Method (DPM)
A revolutionary
approach to managing production, designed for the realities of an imperfect world
approach to managing production, designed for the realities of an imperfect world
Protected Flow Manufacturing (PFM) by LillyWorks is the world's first system based on the DPM model.
The DPM model flips the two steps of traditional scheduling.
Let's face it, trying to predict the future to determine production priorities doesn't work. If it did, we would all be using our ERP systems instead of excel and manual techniques to manage production.
To make the magic happen in the real world:
Step 1 - Execute first - using risk based priorities
Step 2 - Plan - proactively to influence the future.
As a manufacturer, getting as much work through the shopfloor by using your capacity and capabilities effectively is the key to sustained profitability and growth. So how does PFM help?
- Simulating the way production actually processes jobs
- Identifying your resource bottlenecks
- Seeing which materials are likely to cause delays
- Providing you with superior decision making tools with which you can proactively influence your future
PFM works seamlessly with your existing ERP systems
Much of your ERP system works quite well, so don't throw it out! Save yourself the time and money and just replace its planning, scheduling, and execution functionality with a tool that is far more collaborative and reliable then excel.
Integrate or embed PFM directly into your existing ERP system to augment and extend its functionality.
If you don’t yet have an ERP, PFM can serve as a standalone scheduling. platform.
PFM is production scheduling software that drives productivity & profitability!
