OPTIMIZING SCHEDULING
PRODUCTION FLOW IMPROVEMENTS
INTEGRATED PROJECT MANAGEMENT
IMPROVING PREVENTATIVE
MAINTENANCE
OPTIMIZING PRODUCTION
REAL WORLD
SCENARIOS
Volume 2
Cases 7 - 12
SQUEEZE MORE OUT
OF PRODUCTION
OPTIMIZING PRODUCTION
Having a comprehensive, easy-to-use and eff ective suite of planning tools will signifi cantly improve the operational performance of a business. Buyers and production planners need clear visibility of what is required, when it is required and why it is required. The supply of purchased materials and manufactured components need to be closely synchronized with the product assembly schedule to minimize inventory, optimize productivity and maximize on-time delivery performance.
Integration of business systems off ers many advantages. It supports the coordinated planning of production with other functions, such as procurement and maintenance. It also provides accurate and readily analyzed information which supports fl ow optimizations using techniques such as Lean Manufacturing. Increased visibility improves responsiveness to demand changes and enables a more proactive approach to be taken. This is particularly the
case in project-driven environments where eff ective risk management is another key factor in achieving customer satisfaction.
Plant maintenance plays a key role in minimizing disruption to production schedules and ensuring quality output. Many businesses seek to introduce preventative maintenance to increase machine uptime and minimize lifecycle costs. Real-time links to shop fl oor equipment present opportunities for condition monitoring and predictive maintenance. These cases studies illustrate how Columbus has helped various industries optimize production using
the ColumbusManufacturing solution set based on Microsoft Dynamics.
CASE 7:
Optimizing Scheduling
Issue
A company making plastic toys needed to optimize the scheduling of its injection moulding machines at the same time as coordinating these plans with the assembly lines which have to be reconfi gured for each specifi c toy.
Problem
The changeover time on the injection moulding machines and the reconfi guration of the production lines was a lengthy process. The complete process needed careful coordination of various critical resources – setter, tooling, operators, components and packaging. The old ERP system could link the injection moulding schedules to the assembly line, but other resources had to be managed manually. This planning took a small army of people and resulted in constant changes to the schedule which in turn generated too many assembly line changes and necessitated larger safety stocks to buff er delays in production.
Remedy
Using the Microsoft Dynamics features for master planning and scheduling, all resource constraints are now considered during the planning process. Resources are linked through either the product structure (BOM) or the production routing. As planning is now automated, a fi rst rough-cut schedule is generated, then subsequent versions created which can be fi ne-tuned. Similarly, a change in demand can be more easily modeled and a revised schedule published.
Benefi ts
The ability to model and optimize the plans while
considering all the constraints is now quicker and results in more effi cient change-over sequencing. The number of last minute changes to the program is reduced. More stable planning reduces the need to hold buff er stocks. Bottom line benefi ts were:
Better machine utilization Higher labor productivity Reduced inventory
Improved responsiveness to demand changes
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CASE 8:
Production Flow
Improvements
Issue
A company making electronic equipment had experienced rising levels of work in progress inventory due in part to the need to buff er against the unreliability of key machines. The company found that the shop fl oor was crowded, which aggravated the problem of keeping work moving and fast-tracking urgent orders. There was also a desire to implement Lean thinking, but the company didn’t know where to start.
Problem
The existing ERP system gave information on overall inventory levels and costs of production, but captured no shop fl oor timings, so there was no basis for systematic analysis of what were the real bottlenecks. In addition, inventory could only be issued to the batch at the beginning of the job, so there was no easy way to stage issues or to move to a Kanban approach for lower value items.
Remedy
Upgrading to Microsoft Dynamics has delivered the opportunity to record key production data such as operation start and fi nish times on the critical machines. It has also facilitated analyzing this data in a number of diff erent ways as part of the move to Lean. Additionally, electronic Kanbans have now been introduced so that inventory is only pulled when needed by production, retaining the tracking and costing controls needed in their business.
Benefi ts
The company has started the Lean journey with these two initiatives. Capturing more accurate data about the critical machines is allowing them to identify the bottleneck machines and start to tackle their reliability. Kanbans are reducing inventory holdings, but more importantly the shop fl oor is less cluttered and problems such as queues at the bottlenecks are becoming more visible
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CASE 9:
Enhancing Project Visibility
Issue
A manufacturing company designs and manufactures specialist machinery for use in the automotive, aerospace and defence industries. The company predominantly manufactures to agreed customer specifi cation, so the company tends to be project driven. Overall manufacturing lead times can range from 6 to 18 months.
Problem
With such a variety of special customer requirements and long lead-times, the company has had two main issues over the past few years. The fi rst issue has been ensuring timely delivery of materials. The second has been scheduling resources both internally and with subcontractors. The underlying problem has been lack of visibility in their old account driven system. The impact has been poor on-time delivery and has led to some loss of business.
Remedy
Microsoft Dynamics has been implemented with additional modules to provide greater project-specifi c functionality.
Columbus Advanced Project Management and Columbus Visual Project Planning allow them to schedule resources across the factory more easily. The Gantt chart format makes reviewing the progress of a specifi c customer project more visual – this includes Red/Amber alerts to highlight potential late deliveries of purchased or manufactured items. The fully integrated system is able to provide a complete picture of an order from its design, procurement and production, to dispatch and installation.
Benefi ts
The key benefi t is improved visibility of orders going through the shop fl oor resulting in:
Easier progress tracking of projects
Greater ability to react to changes in a timely and orderly manner
More effi cient scheduling of resources both internally and externally
Reduced stock levels
Improved on-time delivery performance
Ultimately these improvements have led to increased business with customers.
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CASE 10:
Integrated Project Management
Issue
A project-based design and development company had historically managed projects using traditional stand-alone project management software that was independent of their accounting system. Each project was managed independently, leading to resource confl icts across the portfolio of live projects. Cost control and fi nancial reporting were diffi cult to calculate. Project overruns on both time and cost were typical.
Problem
Managing projects independently of the fi nancial system gave rise to a number of issues. Cost estimation and budgeting were diffi cult, especially when there were changes. Rescheduling of projects and calculation of cost to complete were time consuming. Project resource confl icts across a number of portfolio managers were diffi cult to identify and resolve, leading to unexpected delays and added costs. Purchasing was poorly coordinated with project schedules.
Remedy
Using Columbus Advanced Projects module which has been implemented in conjunction with Microsoft
Dynamics standard project accounting functionality, all project management tasks have now been migrated from the standalone project system. All projects are established with an initial fi nancial baseline. Any changes to the project are automatically re-calculated into a new version of the budget before approval. Resources are defi ned across the whole business so that workload can be balanced. Actual time is now booked through daily timesheets, with automatic update for completed tasks, and the ability to fl ag potential overruns.
Benefi ts
The integration of project management, procurement, production and accounting processes within the single Microsoft Dynamics system results in a much greater ability to manage the project-based order book. Benefi ts include:
Less time wasted re-keying data, so more time addressing project issues
Material planning better aligned with the up-to-date project plan
Less disruption and delay due to fewer resource confl icts
Timely management information allowing a more proactive response to potential problems
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CASE 11:
Improving Preventative
Maintenance
Issue
A large manufacturer of bed mattresses wanted to reduce unplanned production stoppages due to equipment breakdowns. With production volumes increasing, there was greater pressure on equipment uptime. They also sought to improve equipment life by performing preventative maintenance on a more systematic basis.
Problem
Maintenance was mainly performed on an as-needed basis and record keeping was poor as it tended to be an afterthought. As the maintenance records were poor, it was not easy to obtain meaningful data on machine performance or maintenance costs.
Remedy
The company has introduced Columbus Enterprise Asset Maintenance along with Microsoft Dynamics. All signifi cant production equipment is now registered and preventative maintenance policies established for each type of equipment. The forward schedule of planned
maintenance work is now visible to production planners and can be confi rmed or changed nearer the time to ensure urgent production work is not disrupted. The status of current maintenance jobs is up-to-date and visible. All maintenance costs whether labor hours, spare parts or third party work is booked to the specifi c equipment.
Benefi ts
Benefi ts to date include:
More maintenance being performed on a planned basis Accurate maintenance records giving better
information on equipment performance and costs Statistics on maintenance labor performance and
response times
Better planning for production asset refurbishment and replacement
Fewer breakdowns and less disruption
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CASE 12:
Integrated Maintenance
Planning
Issue
A high-volume manufacturer of automotive parts has sophisticated computer-controlled production equipment. This equipment requires good preventative maintenance to maintain uptime and effi ciency. The computer controls generated alerts on the status of the equipment, but this was not being used.
Problem
The company had historically managed their own manufacturing equipment using stand-alone plant maintenance software that was independent of their ERP system. This resulted in the duplicate purchasing of spares and consumables. In addition, production had limited visibility of planned preventative maintenance work causing friction with the Maintenance Department.
Remedy
The Columbus Enterprise Asset Management module has been implemented alongside Microsoft Dynamics. Maintenance policies are now set for each machine and new business processes introduced to schedule maintenance work in coordination with the production
plans. Interfaces to machine controls are now written to record machine usage data, a key driver for preventative maintenance, and to capture any machine maintenance alerts. Loading of historic data from the old maintenance system has been prioritized for the key machines but generally only summary history was loaded into the new system as the records were of variable quality. New machines are now purchased in Microsoft Dynamics so accurate data is logged throughout their life in the one integrated system..
Benefi ts
Tight integration within Microsoft Dynamics eliminated duplicate eff ort, improved visibility and helped ensure the right parts were on hand to service the equipment when needed. Overall benefi ts included:
Better planning of maintenance department workload resulting in greater effi ciency
Successful introduction of preventative maintenance disciplines
Move towards predictive maintenance using real-time condition monitoring data
Improved on-time delivery performance
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9 9
ColumbusManufacturing
The issues and challenges presented here and many more are addressed by ColumbusManufacturing.
ColumbusManufacturing is an integrated business solution tailored for discrete manufacturers. It includes a combination of our award winning advanced discrete manufacturing software, our industry templates and implementation methodology all built onto the fl exible and reliable Microsoft Dynamics platform.
ColumbusManufacturing starts in the supply chain, though warehousing, inventory, production planning, manufacturing, sales, service, equipment maintenance, delivery routing, engineering, shop fl oor control, sub contract management and project planning and tracking. It is widely known for delivering improved effi ciency and reduced costs by integrating all supply chain processes while providing accurate business metrics for improved decision making.
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ColumbusManufacturing allows you to utilize the solutions and functionality you need. To learn more about the various components, visit www.columbusglobal.com
> Microsoft Dynamics AX or Dynamics NAV
> Columbus ADM (Advanced Discrete Manufacturing) > Columbus SCS (Supply Chain Solution)
> Columbus BIS (Business Integration Software) > Columbus RapidValue
> Columbus SureStep+ > Microsoft Dynamics CRM
Introducing Columbus
RapidValue
RapidValue has been designed and developed by Columbus to help organizations implement best practice business processes alongside their ERP implementation.
RapidValue is a Business Process Modeling solution that is fully integrated into Microsoft Dynamics AX, the foundational platform of ColumbusManufacturing
> Streamline business processes for efficiency and speed
> Adopt best practices when appropriate to the business
> Standardize business processes across the organization
RapidValue enables customers to translate business process models into solutions while working directly in Microsoft Dynamics AX. RapidValue is designed to meet 80% of your industry requirements out of the box.
> Business processes > User procedures
> Application functionality > User roles and profiles > System set-up and base data
For more information on Columbus, our clients’ experiences and our solutions, please visit www.columbusglobal.com
Thanks to the ColumbusManufacturing Team for sharing their Real World Scenarios: Dave Ward, Deborah Vermillion. David McKenna, Niraj Nanda, David Raaphorst, Antony Prabhath, Bo Prychidnyj, Jeevan Anthony Louis, Les Shippen and Clyde Bennett.
INTEGRATING PRODUCT LIFECYCLE MANAGEMENT (PLM) CONFIGURING PRODUCTS TO ORDER REUSING COMPONENTS FACILITATING PRODUCT PERSONALIZATION IMPROVING VERSION CONTROL AND TRACEABILITY MANAGING ENGINEERING CHANGES MANAGING PRODUCT COMPLEXITY REAL WORLD SCENARIOS Volume 1 Cases 1 - 6
GETTING THE RIGHT MIX
OPTIMIZING SCHEDULING PRODUCTION FLOW IMPROVEMENTS INTEGRATED MAINTENANCE PLANNING
INTEGRATED PROJECT MANAGEMENT IMPROVING PREVENTATIVE MAINTENANCE ENHANCING PROJECT VISIBILITY OPTIMIZING PRODUCTION
REAL WORLD SCENARIOS Volume 2 Cases 7 - 12
SQUEEZE MORE OUT OF PRODUCTION
MANAGING COMPLAINTS AND THEIR ASSOCIATED COSTS CONTROLLING WARRANTY CLAIMS
ADDING A SERVICE BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY MANAGING CUSTOMER REQUIREMENTS REAL WORLD SCENARIOS Volume 3 Cases 13 - 15 KEEP DELIVERING
UTILIZING BEST PRACTICE PROCESSES EXPANDING BUSINESS OPERATIONS
BUSINESS PROCESS STANDARDIZATION
REAL WORLD SCENARIOS Volume 4 Cases 16 - 18
ENSURING BEST PRACTICE...
STREAMLINE YOUR BUSINESS PROCESSES.
The ColumbusManufacturting
Real World Scenario Series
Volume 1 Cases 1 through 6 Volume 2 Cases 7 through 12 Volume 3 Cases 13 through 15 Volume 4 Cases 16 through 19 ABOUT COLUMBUS:
Columbus currently employs over 1,000 dedicated professionals working out of 41 offi ces in 21 countries. With more than 20 years experience and 6,000 successful implementations, Microsoft recognizes Columbus as a top global partner and has
