Production planning: Excel or software?
10/01/2023
Temps de lecture : 4 min
"I have no visibility on our operations", "It's complicated to identify the right priorities", "It's a bit of a negotiation between production and the Supply Chain", "It's complicated to quickly simulate a plan", "A lot of rules in one person's head".
Industrial planning is a complex exercise with many levers. Planners deal daily with numerous constraints making it difficult to establish an optimal and especially feasible production plan.
However, it must be acknowledged that manual techniques are limiting because to perform capacity load simulations taking into account a substantial number of variables, one would have to do this manually and consider an unquantifiable number of scenarios.
Using Excel to manage part or all of the planning process, what does that entail?
Industrial production planning is a key process for a site or a UAP. The quality and accuracy of this planning depend on the service rate and productivity, but also on the key to an optimal and efficient relationship between the planning and production teams, who will strive to adhere as closely as possible to the objectives.
However, effective and realistic planning relies on many factors, and that is where we begin to see the first limits of accumulating Excel files or of an ERP alone.
During S&OP meetings, teams establish a consensus between sales objectives, financial objectives, and internal capabilities of realization. During these meetings, the different actors rely on the figures from Excel files and the data from an ERP to make decisions.
However, this data is somewhat biased, and for several reasons.
Biased, static, and asynchronous data
The data from ERPs and Excel are rather static and often resonate at finite capacities. The data has some value, but not all of it is perfect.
These tools do not include certain variables; however, the PDPs are often shaken due to various incidents (breakdowns, absences, shortages, etc.), thus the data must be dynamic so that these variables can be taken into account more quickly.
Excel files are managed by humans, and no matter how competent the resources in charge of these files may be, data processing by humans involves a margin of error, especially when juggling a certain quantity of files. Updates made manually, without the possibility of automation, carry the risk of errors and obsolescence at high levels.
Excel does not allow the centralization of data in the same database and consequently, this prevents synchronization between the services. A common language, a common horizon, a common goal is normally the purpose of these S&OP meetings, but since production and the supply chain rarely share the same base data and do not trust the same data, this will create a phase shift.
Ultimately, Excel files are simply not communication tools even though their content should be accessible to a range of stakeholders in the industrial production chain.
Excel is a tool known to everyone, but it is not designed for extensive professional collaboration. Files created by certain employees can be lost, not sent, deleted, or simply forgotten. The lack of independence of this tool from its users is likely its greatest weakness. Not to mention the probable presence of an Excel “guru” within the company, which would make collaboration more difficult and increase the group's dependence on a single individual.
Today, there are several solutions on the market that can easily plug into your ERP and not only correct the minor imperfections that are residual in the planning production in an ERP but also allow you to simulate “what if we manage to increase the OEE of our machines by so much”, “if we manage to increase our teams' capacity to function”, “if, on the contrary, we reduce it”, “if we are forced to take into account a lead time for raw materials that the ERP is not yet aware of.” These solutions are much more reactive, much more anticipatory.
Of course, transitioning to a digital solution involves an unavoidable project management time, but an industrial planning solution 4.0 is a tool that will enhance the capabilities of the entire production chain.
→ Learn more about implementing a digital solution on an industrial site
The best production planning software to move towards an Industry 4.0
1. Oplit
Oplit is a solution for reactive, collaborative industrial production organization, enlightened by data. It is part of the 4th industrial revolution to improve the profitability of its clients. It revolves around three major axes :
Planning : define your master production plan and adapt your organization by simply visualizing the impact of your assumptions. Make the right decisions and improve the loading rate and service rate of your site.
Load capacity balance simulation
Monitoring production progress
Scheduling : increase your service rate with reactive scheduling by optimizing the allocation of your operations through simple planning. Oplit allows for real-time progress tracking and easy identification of unforeseen issues.
Work-in-progress management (CONWIP method): monitor in real-time the level of work-in-progress on each station, alert in case of unforeseen circumstances, and organize your production based on simple rules.
2. AGR Wholesale Dynamics
AGR Wholesale Dynamics manages the entire supply chain management process. Through a highly integrated and automated process, from the initial product and financial planning process to forecasting, reporting, orders, and allocations.
AGR Wholesale Dynamics allows you to manage your supply chain in a streamlined and consistent manner. It is a simple, fully integrated alternative that offers small and medium-sized wholesalers and distributors the same facilities as the "big players" at much lower costs and with less complexity.
3. Arkieva Enterprise
The software solutions of Arkieva Enterprise are an award-winning suite of collaborative and fully integrated supply chain modules that capture the unique elements of your organization rather than forcing your business to adapt to the software.
Arkieva Enterprise has a distinct architecture that isolates the needs for data extraction, data organization, and feature delivery for the end-user. This results in a solution that easily connects to many back-office systems, provides "ready-to-use" planning features, and allows the planning application to be configured to fit.
4. Colibri
Colibri is designed to be configurable and usable within a few days. The solution is distributed in SaaS (Software as a Service) mode in the Microsoft Azure cloud, which means simple installation with no hidden costs or annual licenses.
Colibri's Strategic Planning solution offers different simulations based on demand assumptions and calculates the capacity of production lines. The company can then validate or modify the actions proposed by Colibri to achieve its objectives. It can also manage and visualize the financial impact of different capacity scenarios to make the best decisions.
5. Myfab
The Open-Prod ERP from Myfab has been developed for the manufacturing industry with a directly integrated MRP (Computer-Assisted Production Management) module. This tool allows for the management of the entire production process by providing a 360° view of important parameters.
With features developed by manufacturers, for manufacturers, the Open-Prod ERP optimizes all costs and reduces lead times while improving margins. This industrial production software thus enables a rapid increase in productivity, efficiency, and quality.
