Blog
Insights on production scheduling, lean manufacturing, and manufacturing software from 35+ years of industry experience.
Everything we have published.
Getting More Out of the Machine That Sets Your Pace
Bottleneck utilization improvement comes from protecting the constraint, not pushing it. Load ratios, the anchor mechanism, and what scheduling cannot fix.
The End of the Daily Expedite List
Reduce expediting in manufacturing by removing its causes: impossible promises, invisible overloads, and priority that lives in heads instead of the plan.
When the Schedule Stops Changing Every Morning
Reduce schedule changes in manufacturing with scoped reschedules, preserved actuals, and deferred apply. The mechanisms, the audit trail, the honest limits.
Overtime as a Decision, Not a Surprise
Reduce manufacturing overtime by finding the overload weeks early and removing the hours that caused it. Worked capacity arithmetic and the honest limits.
Less WIP Without Less Output
Reduce work in process manufacturing by controlling when jobs start, not how fast they run. Backward scheduling arithmetic, overlap, and the honest limits.
From All-Day Replan to a Coffee Break
Reduce production planning time by automating the arithmetic and keeping the judgement. Where planner hours go, what a run replaces, and what stays manual.
How Much Capacity Are You Already Losing?
Hidden capacity loss in manufacturing comes from five sources. Here is the arithmetic to size each one at your own work centers before you buy anything.
How to Calculate Scheduling Software Payback (With Your Own Numbers)
A scheduling software payback calculation you can defend: four measured inputs, the arithmetic, a worked example, and the assumptions that change the answer.
The Real Risks in a Scheduling Implementation (and How to Reduce Them)
Scheduling software implementation risks ranked by how often they actually bite: bad routing data, unowned roles, scope creep, and the mitigation for each.
What an Unreliable Schedule Actually Costs You
The cost of poor production scheduling shows up in eight places, none of them on a report. Here is where each one hides and how to price it in your own plant.
What Changes in the First 30 Days
Your first month with production scheduling software, week by week: what you observe, what surprises people, and what has not changed yet by day 30.
What Changes by Day 90
Scheduling software implementation results at 90 days: which numbers have moved, which capabilities are worth switching on now, and how to measure honestly.