Cummins: Scheduling Labor Increases Customer Satisfaction

Cummins Engine is a global power leader with 33 locations across the United States, designing, manufacturing, selling, and servicing diesel engines. Their customer accessorization operations — customizing engines for specific applications — require the kind of scheduling flexibility that corporate ERP systems simply cannot provide.

Joe Van Wagner, Production Manager, found that neither the old nor new corporate system could handle job shop management the way Cummins runs their shops. He needed a flexible tool for planning and scheduling labor over several months — and he found it in Resource Manager for Excel.

The result: increased customer satisfaction through realistic promise dates backed by actual labor and machine capacity data.

Read the full Cummins success story.

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The Challenge: Corporate Systems Cannot Schedule Job Shops

Cummins was in the process of changing their corporate system. Neither the legacy Xerox system nor the new replacement handled job shop scheduling adequately. Joe Van Wagner described the gap: "We need a flexible tool for planning and scheduling labor over several months. In addition, we need to schedule day-to-day machine operations per the master schedule."

The legacy system provided only basic parts and engine model information for scheduling — no detailed man-hours, no routings, no labor capacity planning. This meant delivery promises were based on incomplete data, and customer satisfaction suffered as a result.

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The Solution: Bills-of-Resource for Complete Visibility

Resource Manager for Excel gave Cummins capabilities their corporate systems lacked.

Labor Plus Machine Scheduling

Joe Van Wagner highlighted a key feature: "We like the fact that Resource Manager for Excel has a Bill-Of-Resource that can include the tool, labor, and machine requirements for scheduling the shop. With our old legacy system from Xerox, we had only basic parts and engine model information; now we have detailed man-hours and routings available."

This Bill-of-Resource approach — combining tools, labor, and machines in a single scheduling model — is what makes Resource Manager fundamentally different from basic scheduling tools. It provides a complete picture of what is needed to produce each product.

Realistic Promise Dates

"We like the ability to define load and select a realistic promise date for our customers — we have already seen an increase in customer satisfaction," Joe reported.

This is the direct link between scheduling capability and business results. When you can see actual load and capacity, you can quote delivery dates that your factory can actually meet. Customers notice the difference between "we'll try to get it to you by..." and "we can confirm delivery on [date]."

Flexible Data Integration

Cummins downloads Bills-of-Materials from their AS400 system directly into Resource Manager for Excel, adds labor and routings, and immediately generates master schedules. This flexibility — importing existing data and enhancing it with scheduling-specific information — meant Cummins could start scheduling without rebuilding their production data from scratch.

Make-to-Stock and Make-to-Order

In addition to custom engine scheduling, Cummins uses Resource Manager for make-to-stock production of parts for engines and distribution. The system handles both make-to-order and make-to-stock scheduling within the same platform, using Gantt charts that provide "an excellent visual on what is happening, or needs to happen."

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Why Long-Range Labor Scheduling Delivers ROI

Proactive Staffing Decisions

Seeing labor requirements several months out enables proactive decisions about hiring, cross-training, overtime, and temporary staffing. Instead of scrambling when a capacity shortage hits, production managers can plan ahead — which is always cheaper and less disruptive.

Customer Satisfaction Is Retention

For Cummins, customer satisfaction is not just a nice metric — it is business retention. Engine customization customers are repeat buyers. Every realistic promise date that is met reinforces the customer relationship. Every missed delivery erodes it. Long-range labor scheduling ensures promises are keepable.

The Gap-Filling Role

Resource Manager for Excel served as what Joe Van Wagner called "the perfect fit for a stop-gap solution" — filling the scheduling gap between corporate systems. This is a common and highly valuable role for scheduling software: providing the scheduling intelligence that corporate ERP systems cannot, without requiring replacement of those systems.

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Lessons for Multi-Location Manufacturers

Your corporate ERP probably cannot schedule your shop floor. Cummins discovered this with both their old and new corporate systems. Accept this reality and add a dedicated scheduling layer.

Labor scheduling is as important as machine scheduling. For operations that involve significant manual work — like engine customization — labor is the constraint, not machines.

Excel compatibility matters. The ability to download existing BOMs from AS400 into Resource Manager for Excel eliminated the biggest implementation barrier. Look for scheduling software that works with your existing data formats.

Visual scheduling changes behavior. Cummins highlighted the Gantt charting as providing "an excellent visual on what is happening, or needs to happen." Visual scheduling tools change how production teams think about and manage work.

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Frequently Asked Questions

How does Cummins use Resource Manager for scheduling?

Cummins Engine uses Resource Manager for Excel as a flexible tool for planning and scheduling labor over several months, plus day-to-day machine operations scheduling. The system uses Bills-of-Resource that include tool, labor, and machine requirements for comprehensive shop scheduling.

Why did Cummins need scheduling software separate from their ERP?

Cummins was changing their corporate system, and neither the old nor new system could handle job shop management the way they run their shops. Resource Manager for Excel provided the flexible scheduling layer they needed as a complement to their corporate systems.

How does long-range labor scheduling improve customer satisfaction?

By scheduling labor months in advance, Cummins can define load accurately and select realistic promise dates for customers. This visibility eliminates the guesswork in delivery quoting and ensures customers receive commitments the factory can actually meet.

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Schedule Labor, Increase Satisfaction

If your customers are receiving unreliable delivery promises because your scheduling system does not account for labor constraints, the Cummins experience shows the path forward. Request a free demo and see long-range labor scheduling in action.

Read the full Cummins success story and explore all scheduling success stories.