For agile companies, graphical tools are practically indispensable in production planning today. In contrast to tabular lists, they can clearly display the current production situation at a glance in the form of pie charts, bar charts and Gantt charts and clearly indicate problems with traffic light colors, for example. This enables production planners to react quickly to any difficulties and initiate the necessary measures in good time. For example, it is possible to prevent a promised delivery date from not being met because a resource bottleneck is not recognized and rectified in time.

The graphic control station

A central visual tool in production planning is the graphical control station. It shows the entire production situation, depicts the individual production steps in their interdependencies and allows those responsible to run through various scenarios with the help of simulations. This forms the basis for efficient detailed production planning. However, in order to be able to reliably monitor the production environment at all times, those responsible require additional graphical tools that specifically show current resource bottlenecks. This is the only way to ensure that they are alerted in good time during ongoing operations when machines and employees are overloaded or the necessary materials are missing.

If the corresponding visualization tools are fully integrated into the logistics and planning processes, it is not only ensured that they always show the current status of things; it is then also possible to use them as operational tools, i.e. to eliminate the identified bottlenecks directly from them. Thanks to the data link with the systems for production planning and control (PPC), materials management, human resources, maintenance or service, they can show, for example, which alternative machines or employees are available for a particular order or how missing material can be procured. If a responsible person makes corresponding rescheduling, this can be written back directly. This means that the reassignment of a production order in the visualization tool is immediately effective in production planning and control or an order is immediately triggered in materials management.

Ideally, the business software of a manufacturing company should already provide such a visualization tool pre-integrated. Then the company does not have to create and maintain interfaces, there is no redundant data storage and the processes run securely, reliably and without delays. One example of such a tool is the 'Manufacturing Visualizer' of the ERP software 'IFS Applications'. It was developed on the basis of MS.Net technologies and only requires an up-to-date .Net framework, which is used for the entire application level of the ERP software.

Evaluation in real time

The integration of the tool also makes it possible to use in-memory for data analysis and visualization if required. IFS Applications supports Oracle's in-memory technology, which makes it possible to apply this special type of data storage specifically to those areas of the business software where it can provide the greatest benefit. Individual tables from the relational database of the software can be moved from the hard disks to the main memory, where they are then stored in column-oriented form. In the case of queries, it is therefore not necessary to first load the data from the hard disks into the main memory in order to be able to process it there. In addition, column-oriented data storage - compared to the usual row-oriented data storage in relational databases - speeds up read access considerably. If, for example, a specific name is searched for, the corresponding column can be read sequentially without any jumps.

For the analysis and visualization of bottlenecks in production, this means that even if they are based on very large amounts of data, utilization rates of machines or availability of personnel and parts can be determined and displayed practically in real time. Those responsible can thus optimize production processes even faster and react to unforeseen events.

Ideally, the tool comes with preconfigured analyses, views and diagrams for the most common requirements, which planners can easily compile into their own individual overview using drag & drop; this also allows them to display material availability and machine and personnel utilization for specific individual production orders in a window, for example. Thanks to its simple configurability, he can not only use the tool right from the start, but can also easily compile new individual overviews at any time and at short notice if required.

Author: Peter Schulz is Team Manager Presales at IFS.

Take concrete measures at the click of a mouse

The following case studies show how a visualization tool can be used to eliminate bottlenecks in machines, materials and personnel:

• An overview of machine utilization highlights a particular machine in red because it is running at over 90% capacity. By clicking on the red area, the planner can call up further levels of detail in the form of tooltip windows. In this way, they can first display all the production orders that have led to the machine being overloaded and then immediately take specific measures. The visualization tool gives them the option of increasing the shift model to two-shift operation, increasing the available capacity with an additional alternative machine or triggering the extended workbench - i.e. outsourcing a production order to a service provider.
• In a summary of the missing quantities per production order, the planner filters out individual production orders and has their material coverage checked. If there is not enough material for one of the production orders, this material shortage is highlighted in red. Here too, the planner can use tooltip windows to initiate measures to resolve the bottleneck, for example by having the business software create ad hoc order or procurement proposals. The software would also generate these suggestions automatically as part of its scheduling runs, which are usually carried out automatically every night - but with a time delay of several hours in some cases. However, by proactively triggering the procurement and order proposals that would normally be initiated by the business software's 'Material Requirements Planning', the planner can intervene at an early stage and thus prevent the postponement of an agreed delivery date, for example.
• An overview of personnel utilization shows personnel in red who are scheduled for too many production orders on certain dates and therefore cannot carry out all of them. By clicking on the bottleneck, the system searches for alternative resources by looking directly in the HR software for personnel who have the necessary qualifications and are also available at the time in question because they are not on vacation, on further training or otherwise scheduled. Once the right personnel have been found, the planner can eliminate the bottleneck by assigning the alternative personnel to the production orders directly in the overview.