Scheduling

EXPLANATION OF WORK START DATE, SHIP DATE, AND DOCK DATE

Dates in Cetec ERP are defined as follows:

• Work Start Date - Work Start Date in Cetec ERP is the target date for starting work i.e. the date you need to begin production in order to meet the Ship Date. Unless work start date is manually entered for an order, Cetec ERP auto-assigns it per your default scheduling settings.

• Ship Date - Ship Date in Cetec ERP refers to the date that you promise to ship an order by.

• Dock Date - Dock Date in Cetec ERP is the date that your customer expects to receive your product into their shipping dock.

DEFAULT SCHEDULING SETTINGS

Cetec ERP lets you configure how you want to manage production scheduling. The following default scheduling settings are available for you to configure:

• Prod_floor_wait_time_multiplier - This configuration setting helps you to capture the waiting time on the shop floor—the time spent outside of active labor. If you do not have specified staging locations in your part path, then this multiplier could be useful. The multiplier applies to total estimated labor minutes spent on an order.

• Ord_schedule_min_days_between_wip_and_promise - Minimum threshold of days between Work Start and Ship date (this will override a system-assigned Work Start Date)

• Ord_schedule_max_days_between_wip_and_promise - Maximum threshold of days between Work Start and Ship date (this will override a system-assigned Work Start Date)

• Hours_per_workday - This variable is used to translate your total labor estimate into the number of days, and subtracts it from the Ship Date when determining the system-assigned Work Start date. The default value for this in Cetec ERP is 7 hours, i.e. 7 hours of total labor estimate = 1 day substracted from Ship Date.

• Finite_schedule_disabled - By default advanced production (finite) scheduling is disabled in Cetec ERP. Enabling this feature will introduce your production floor capacity constraints (if you have them defined) into the logic of system-assigned Work Start dates, and generate a system-dictated allocation of work orders based on customer Dock Dates.

BASIC ORDER SCHEDULING

Default (system-assigned) Work Start Date

If no Work Start date is entered for an order, Cetec ERP will apply the following rules to automatically assign one:

• Take the order total estimated labor and multiply it by your “prod_floor_wait_time_multiplier” if you have one defined (see above scheduling config settings for an explanation of the prod_floor_wait_time_multiplier.)

• Take the above result (total est. labor * prod_floor_wait_time_multiplier) and translate it from hours to days, where 7 hours = 1 day by default (see above scheduling config settings for an explanation of hours_per_workday.

• Take the resulting number of days and subtract it from your order Ship Date. This will be your system-assigned Work Start date, unless any of the following exceptions apply:

  • The resulting number of days exceeds your maximum allowable days between Work Start date and Ship date. This max value is determined by your “ord_schedule_max_days_between_wip_and_promise” setting (see above config settings for an explanation). If this is the case, then your Work Start date will be set to the max day number minus your Ship Date.
  • The resulting number of days is less than your minimum allowable days between Work Start date and Ship date. This minimum value is determined by your “ord_schedule_min_days_between_wip_and_promise” setting (see above config settings for an explanation). If this is the case, then your Work Start date will be set to the minimum day number minus your Ship Date.
  • You have no estimated labor for the order, and therefore zero number of days to subtract from your Ship Date. If this is the case, then your Work Start date will be set to the “order_schedule_min_days_between_wip_and_promise” minimum day number value minus your Ship Date.

Updates to Work Start Dates based on Sales Order Ship/Dock Date change requests

If an a sales order Ship Date changes (e.g. per a customer request) and that order Work Start date was system-assigned, then Cetec ERP will automatically re-assign a Work Start date to the order based on the above rules for system-assigned Work Start dates.

Manual Assignment of Work Start Dates

Work Start dates may always be manually assigned or updated in the system. Take careful note, however, that any manual Work Start date assignment or update will lock in place, and will not auto-update per the rules for system-assigned Work Start dates detailed above nor per order Ship/Dock date changes. These will stay locked until manually unlocked for an order. To unlock and update the Work Start date, click the ‘set’ link next to the Work Start date field, and either manually update or switch to a system-assigned Work Start date and click the “refactor schedule” button to propagate the change and auto-assign a new Work Start date.

You may control who can manually edit a Work Start date using the “Order WIP Modify” user role. Only users with Admin privileges or the Order WIP Modify role can edit (and therefore lock) a Work Start date for an order.

ADVANCED PRODUCTION (FINITE) SCHEDULING

By default, advanced production (finite) scheduling is disabled in Cetec. Enabling this feature will introduce your production floor capacity constraints (if you have them defined) into the logic of system-assigned Work Start dates, and generate a system-dictated allocation of work orders based on customer dock date priority. This schedule is delivered in an interactive gantt chart (see below for more info).

Use of the advanced finite scheduling engine in Cetec ERP assumes a significant degree of intelligent setup and configuration that accurately represents both the capacity constraints of your business and the estimated labor (i.e. demand) against those constraints. Without those areas rigorously defined, the scheduling engine will muddy your Work Start dates and work order schedule, instead of clarifying them. Please ensure you have the following data defined before using:

• Capacity of hours per day defined at each work location (Production » Scheduling » Set Capacity).

• For each order, estimated labor defined for each staging location and work location the order must go through on your shop floor.

Note that, if you leave the Work Start date blank, assuming the advanced scheduling engine will auto-assign one, and you have no capacity constraints or estimated work (i.e. if the scheduling engine isn’t set up based on demand or capacity) - the system will simply default the Work Start date to reflect the pre-configured minimum allowable days between Ship Date and Work Start date.

SCHEDULING GANTT CHART - ADVANCED PRODUCTION (FINITE) SCHEDULING ONLY!

The gantt chart visualizes the entire production schedule for every work order that has been entered into the system yet has not been completely shipped. The Cetec ERP scheduling engine is designed to factor in 1. relevant dates for orders such as the Work Start or Dock dates and 2. shop floor capacity to assign scheduling priorities.

The following guidelines is to help you best utilize the scheduling Gantt chart:

• Resources / Capacity - Since Cetec uses shop floor capacity to assign scheduling priorities, shop floor capacity must be defined beforehand. This can be done in one of two ways: 1. Each worker assigned to a work location represents 7 hours of work capacity. Admin users may navigate to user profiles and set default production locations toward the bottom of the user edit page. This will automatically add 7 hours of capacity to the work location. 2. Admin users may navigate to OrdlineStatus page under Data Maintenance to manually define Capacity Minutes Per Day per work location. Doing it this way will override any work capacity calculated from assigning workers to that work location.

• Order Modifications - The production schedule is updated and refactored every time a new work order is entered. To manually override the order’s priority in production scheduling you must change the the order’s Work Start date. To do so, CTRL+click (open in new tab) on any one of the gray work location bars inside the Gantt chart for the order you would like modify. This will take you to the work order view screen in a separate tab. From here select Schedule Order from the left sidebar menu and update the Work Start date. After the Work Start date update, click Refactor Schedule to update production schedule. Manually setting an order’s Work Start date will lock the order’s Work Start date and prevent Cetec from giving it a new scheduling priority when the production schedule is updated.

• Using The Gantt Chart - The default Gantt chart schedule display shows all work orders in the system and their respective work locations and work location times required. You may also selectively display only certain work order numbers or work locations. It is also possible to switch from showing work order schedule to work location schedule. To do so click on View By Location above the Gantt chart.

The Gantt chart is zoomable. To zoom in or out of the production schedule, simply hover your mouse over the point of the gantt you would like to zoom in or out of, and use your mouse or trackpad scroll function. Scrolling up will zoom out, and scrolling down will zoom in.