Blog
Insights on production scheduling, lean manufacturing, and manufacturing software from 35+ years of industry experience.
Everything we have published.
How Sub-Assembly Visibility Ends the Late-Component Surprise
The parent job looks small because the work lives one level down. See how exploding sub-assemblies into one plan removes the feeder scramble, with numbers.
How the Production Record Shortens a Quality Investigation
A quality investigation is mostly reconstruction. See how machine, operator, shift, and scrap records narrow containment fast, with the arithmetic.
How Variance Data Fixes the Routing That Was Always Wrong
Some routings have been wrong for years and nobody could prove it. See how planned versus actual variance finds them, with worked hours and the honest limits.
How a Won Quote Becomes the Schedule Without Re-Entry
The delivery date you simulated to win the order becomes the plan you run, with no second keying. See how quote simulation carries into the live schedule.
How Alternative Work Centers Keep a Hot Job Moving
When the preferred machine is booked solid, a qualified alternate runs the step instead. See how routing flexibility turns a stalled job into a delivered one, with the honest trade.
How Backward Scheduling Delays Raw Material Staging
Backward scheduling tells you the latest date material is needed, not the earliest: how scheduling from the due date keeps raw stock in the stockroom instead of staged on the floor.
How Kiosk Capture Replaces the Paper Clipboard
Operators tap start and stop at the machine instead of filling in a shift-end sheet a clerk re-keys the next morning. See the clerical time and data errors that go away.
How One Plan Aligns Sales and Production Promises
Sales and production alignment starts with one schedule both sides read: how a shared finite-capacity plan replaces optimistic promises with dates the floor can actually hit.
How Parallel Machines Clear a Big Lot Faster
When a work center holds several identical machines, load balancing spreads a large lot across them so it finishes in a fraction of the time. See the arithmetic and the limits.
How Planned Downtime Modeling Keeps the Schedule Honest
Model preventive maintenance, holidays, and shift gaps as capacity the plan can see, so scheduled jobs never land on hours the machine was never going to work.
How Realistic Handoff Time Keeps Promise Dates Honest
The hours a job spends between operations, waiting, moving, in transit, are real. See how queue, move, and transit time enter the plan so promise dates stop being optimistic.
How Skill Visibility Prevents Certification Lapses
Operator certification tracking stops an expired cert from reaching a critical job: how skill-gated scheduling and expiry dates catch the lapse before it becomes scrap or an audit finding.