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The productions Scheduler visualises production order information. Production order information, sales orders (containing goods to be produced) and resource capacity can be viewed in the form of a Gantt chart.


The main goal of the Scheduler is to create a schedule for production, so all finished products are produced on time, providing smooth production without any delays. The second main goal is to provide transparency for the production process so that the user always knows what should be produced and when it should be completed. One of the core abilities of the Scheduler is to reschedule production orders, production runs and operations.


This tool helps to assess how long the order should take, determine the resources loading, and plan in which sequence the operations should be completed. The scheduler also enables you to view and manage the dependencies between operations.


NOTE: Production BOM is an advanced manufacturing feature. You will need to add the advanced manufacturing module to your DEAR base subscription to use this feature. See Getting started with the Advanced Manufacturing module for more information. 


Prerequisites


Table of Contents


Scheduler basics

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The scheduler contains the following views:

  • Calendar – Calendar view of production orders in planned [and released] status.
  • Planning – the Gantt view of production orders in planned status and released status.
  • Production – the Gantt view of production orders in released status.
  • Sales – the Gantt view of sales with finished goods currently in production.
  • Resources – the Gantt view of allocated resources by their production orders.


Only users with the full access permission to the scheduler will be able to edit the Scheduler to reschedule production orders, production runs and operations. All settings and views are available to any user with at least read-only access. See Managing users and roles and User permissions explained for more information. 


Configure scheduler settings and filters

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Scheduler settings and filters can be configured at the top of the scheduler screen. Choose whether to view the Calendar view, Planning Gantt chart, Production Gantt chart, Sales Gantt chart or Resources Gantt chart. Not all filters are available for each view. 


Production orders can be viewed for one shop floor location at a time, selected from the drop-down list.


Layout settings (Cog icon) – this drop-down field allows you to change the layout and visuals of the scheduler grid. This setting is available for all scheduler views except calendar.

  • Horizontal lines – displays horizontal lines for the grid.
  • Vertical lines – displays vertical lines for the grid.
  • Dependencies – displays the dependencies for the operations. 
  • Expand all – expands all lines.
  • Collapse all – collapses all lines to the top level.
  • Show completed – shows completed orders.
  • Show weekends – shows weekend days (weekend days are shown in grey).
  • Show resources - makes the resources table visible/invisible. See Resources table described below. The resources table is available for the Planning view, Production view and Resources view.
  • Group nested orders – nested orders will be grouped together in the display. 
  • View -  Gantt charts can be displayed in hours, days or weeks – each cell can be equal to one hour, one day or one week.


Dates – this drop-down field allows you to choose the time frame for the scheduler view (this setting is available for all scheduler views except Calendar):

  • All dates
  • Due today
  • This week
  • 7 days ahead
  • 14 days ahead 
  • Custom time frame.


For Calendar view, you will instead be able to select whether the calendar shows the month, week, or day. By default, month is selected.


Use scheduler filters to filter which results show in the scheduler view. Multiple filters can be applied at once. 


Buffer – allows the filtering by the remaining manufacturing buffer for an order. This filter is available for the production orders view and planning view. The available options are:

  • Urgent - Red – ⩾ 33.3% buffer remained and all overdue orders
  • Medium - Yellow – 34% - 66.6%
  • Safe - Green – ⩾ 67% and all orders which buffer is more than 100%


Work center – allows the filtering by Work centers. It is possible to check as many checkboxes as needed. By default, the All option is selected. This filter is available for the production view and resources view. 


Resource – allows the filtering by resources codes which are utilised in the production orders, production runs and operations. It is possible to check as many checkboxes as needed. By default, the All option is selected. This filter is available for the production orders and resources view. 


NOTE: Production operations can be color-coded according to the work centre they take place in. The color-coding takes place from the Work centre screen. Color-coding affects the production, resources, and planning views. The colors are not applied to runs, orders, or resources. 


Manufacturing buffer

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Manufacturing buffer is a value set in the production BOM to protect production order deadlines. The buffer is set to allow enough time to complete the production order when something goes wrong. The manufacturing buffer is added to the release date of the order. 


The manufacturing buffer is set in percentage terms to define how much production time is needed as a buffer. 


Each delay causes a reduction of the total buffer percentage. There are 3 manufacturing buffer zones:

  • Green- Safe zone (66.6+%): There is plenty of time to complete the Production Order.
  • Yellow - Warning zone (33.3-66.6%): There is time to complete the Production Order. Production should not be delayed any further. 
  • Red - Urgent zone (0-33.3%): The Production Order can't be delayed anymore and should be processed urgently. 


The manufacturing buffer is visible on production orders on  the Planning view, Production view and Sales view. 


See Manufacturing buffer for more information. 


Calendar view

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While a Gantt chart is useful to visualise the multiple operations and runs in a production order, it can be more convenient to view orders displayed on a calendar for long-term planning. Calendar view displays production orders in Planned status – it is a calendar version of the Planning view. This functionality will be expanded in the near future to allow releasing orders from this view, as is the case in planning view. 


Only production orders with Planned status will appear in the calendar view of the Scheduler. 


The calendar view allows the user to reschedule production tasks from the Edit mode. See Rescheduling production orders, production runs and operations below for more information. 


NOTE: The re-planning done by drag and drop in calendar view does not consider resource capacity allocation and availability and can result in overallocation. Use Capacity Planner or Production view to replan taking into account capacity allocation and availability.


Planning view

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Production orders with Planned and Released status will appear in the planning view of the scheduler. 


Select one or more orders (use Shift + click or Ctrl + click to select multiple orders) in the Planned section and click Release Orders to move them from Planned status to Released. You can also double-click an order to open the release confirmation window. 


You will be able to change the Release date when releasing an order; however, orders in this view cannot be dragged and dropped to reschedule.


Production orders in the Releasing section of this view will be shown according to their production runs. Releasing a production order from the planning view will automatically create one production run for the entire quantity of the order. You can click through to the order itself from the list on the right to divide the order into more production runs if required. 


Production view

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Production view visualises scheduling information for production orders, production runs and production operations. Orders are visible in the scheduler once they have been released. Orders are prioritised in order of release date.


To the left of the screen, the production order number is listed with the finished good SKU and the progress percentage of the order. Click the production order name to be taken to that production task. To the right is the Gantt chart display. Hovering over any production order line will show a pop-up window displaying extra information for that order including problems such as lack of resource capacity. 


The scheduler lists the orders to be performed or resources on the vertical axis, and time intervals on the horizontal axis. The vertical axis rows are expandable:

  • Level 1 – Production order # – lists the number of the released production order.
    • Level 2 – Production run # – lists all production runs that are within this production order.
      • Level 3 – Operations – lists the operations in their sequence for the production run. Light-shaded areas of the bar indicate non-working hours. 

Click the arrow to the left of the production order number or production run to expand or collapse any line of the scheduler. 


The production orders view allows the user to reschedule production tasks from the Edit mode. See Rescheduling production orders, production runs and operations below for more information.


Set order priority

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Assigning priorities to production orders allows managers to see which order should take priority if things are behind scheduled. In the Production view, users can select high, medium, or low priority from the dropdown field in the Priority column.


By default, new production orders will have medium priority. When Save changes is pressed, the orders will be sorted and the scheduler updated. Within a group, orders will be sorted by release date. 

MES application will display orders in the user task list according to order priority. 


Resources view

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Resources view displays scheduling information for each of your resources in the form of a Gantt chart. Resources view can be displayed in hours, days or weeks – each cell can be equal to one hour, one day or one week. The rows of the vertical axis are expandable:

  • Level 1 – Resource – lists all resources set up in production settings. Dark-shaded sections indicate the resource being used, light-shaded sections indicate a resource not being used.
    • Level 2 – Operations – lists the operations where the resource is utilised. The production order # of the operation and its cycle time are listed to the left. Dark-shaded sections indicate working hours, light-shaded sections indicate non-working hours.

Example: As you can see from expanding the resources view for LAB-001, dark-shaded sections of the red bar indicate the resource being used, and light-shaded sections indicate a resource not being used. Light-shaded sections of the red bars indicate an under-utilised resource.


Example: LAB-002 is mostly fully shaded in darker red, indicating the resource is being used to capacity. Light sections of the purple operation bars correspond to a midday break and the non-working hours of the night and weekends.


Sales view

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Sales view visualises scheduling information for sales that include finished goods in the form of a Gantt chart. Sales view can be displayed in hours, days or weeks – each cell can be equal to one hour, one day or one week.


The rows of the vertical axis are expandable for sales orders:

  • Level 1 – Sales order # – lists the sales orders that contain one or more finished goods.
    • Level 2 – Production Orders # – lists all production orders that are created to address the sales order demand.


Hovering over any line will show a pop-up window displaying extra information for that order, such as the required by date and the expected date and time of completion for the order.


Resources table

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Use Show Resources in the settings makes the Resources table visible/invisible. The Resources table displays the amount of allocated capacity in the vertical axis. The Resources table is displayed showing resource capacity compared with resource allocation per day. The Resource view toggle can be toggled on/off in the Planning view, Production view and Resources view. 

  • Resources in green are within capacity.
  • Resources in yellow are allocated at capacity.
  • Resources in red are overallocated for that day.


Auto-planning and auto-releasing production orders

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Planning or releasing of a production order can be automated in order to save time on planning similar orders. Production orders created by sales can be set to be created with Draft, Planned or Released status. Auto-planning an order will automatically add it to the Planning and Calendar view of the Scheduler. Auto-releasing a production order will automatically add it to the Planning and Production views of the Scheduler.


This setting can be configured from Settings > General Settings > Production Process Customisation. Set Create Production Order to When Sales Order is authorised and Create Production Order status to Planned or Released.



When an order is released, it is automatically placed in the Scheduler with one Production Run for the whole order. The Planned date and Release date will be calculated automatically using the From Required by Date backward method.


Rescheduling Production Orders, Production Runs and Operations

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The editing mode is opened by clicking Edit Mode in the top right of the Scheduler screen. It is not possible to edit the Scheduler if it is being edited by another user. The Edit mode is only available for the Production view and Calendar view of the Scheduler. 


Rescheduling for production view

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NOTE: Production operations in a run are automatically rescheduled to reflect when a run or operation is started early, started late, completed early, when the quantity to produce has been changed, and when Actual time for production is changed manually. Automatic re-scheduling only affects operations in the affected production run. It does not affect any other production runs, production orders or nested orders. 


The orders displayed on the Scheduler can be rescheduled by dragging and dropping Production Orders, Production Runs, and operations. Any movement of a scheduled object causes changes throughout the Production Module. You can also click Reschedule next to a Production Order line to automatically reschedule orders according to available capacity.


The rules for drag-and-drop for the orders/runs/operations are:

  • An object can't be dragged into the past, i.e. it is impossible to schedule any object to the date later than the current date.
  • It is impossible to drag one object above the other. The objects can't overlap each other.
  • Dependencies for the objects are not interrupted and connect the objects anywhere where they are moved.
  • Dragging and dropping an object means rescheduling and re-planning of components and resource capacity.


When an object is dropped, the following processes take place:

  • The initial release date marker is not moved for the Production Order to show the initial release date.
  • The resource capacity is re-planned for this Production Order – reversed allocation of the resource capacity (see Capacity Planner).
  • The spare capacity is re-allocated to the other Production Orders where it is needed.
  • Allocated components are not changed for this Production Order.


Rescheduling for calendar view

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Orders displayed in calendar view can be rescheduled by dragging and dropping production orders in Edit mode. 


NOTE: The re-planning done by drag and drop in calendar view does not consider resource capacity allocation and availability and can result in overallocation. Use Capacity Planner or Production view to replan taking into account capacity allocation and availability.


When the order is re-planned, the new release date and required by date from the calendar view are saved to the production order. When a re-planned order is released, the required by date is not updated and remains as the date set up in calendar view.


Sales order required by date is NOT changed even if required by date is updated in the production order. We recommend using the Production Overdue and Required By Date Exceptions report to find any discrepancies to keep customers up to date. 


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