Solutions
Using Excel to manage part or all of the planning process, what does that imply?
Biased, static, and asynchronous data
The best industrial production-planning software for moving toward Industry 4.0
"I have no visibility into our operations," "It's complicated to identify the right priorities," "It's a bit of a negotiation between production and the Supply Chain," "It's complicated to quickly simulate a plan," "Lots of rules in one person's head"
Excel is a divisive tool, so let's take a moment to look at the capabilities and limits of these famous files.
"I have no visibility into our operations," "It's complicated to identify the right priorities," "It's a bit of a negotiation between production and the Supply Chain," "It's complicated to quickly simulate a plan," "Lots of rules in one person's head".
Industrial planning is a complex exercise with multiple drivers. Planners juggle daily with numerous constraints, making it tricky to establish an optimal and, above all, achievable production plan.
However, it must be acknowledged that manual techniques are limiting because, to run load-capacity simulations taking into account a substantial number of variables, you would have to carry out by hand and consider an immeasurable number of scenarios.
Industrial production planning is a key process for a site or a UAP. The service level and productivity depend on the quality and accuracy of this planning, but it is also the key to an optimal and effective relationship between the planning and production teams, who will be keen to adhere as much as possible to the objectives.
However, effective and realistic planning relies on numerous factors, and that is where we observe the first limits of the accumulation of Excel files or of an ERP alone.
During S&OP meetings, the teams establish a consensus between the sales objectives, the financial objectives, and the internal realization capacities. During these meetings, the different stakeholders rely on the figures from the Excel files and the data of an ERP to make decisions.
However, this data is somewhat biased, and this for several reasons.
ERP and Excel data are rather static and often reason on a finite-capacity basis. The data has a certain value, but it is not all perfect.
These tools do not include certain variables; however, MPS plans are often shaken by various and diverse incidents (breakdown, absence, shortage...), so the data must be dynamic for these variables to be taken into account more quickly.
Excel files are managed by humans, and as competent as the resources in charge of these files may be, data processing by humans implies a margin of error, especially when it comes to juggling a certain quantity of files. Updates carried out manually, without the possibility of automation, raise the risk of error and obsolescence to high levels.
Excel does not allow the centralization of data in a single base and consequently prevents synchronization between departments. A common language, a common horizon, a common objective, that is normally the goal of these S&OP meetings, but since production and the supply chain rarely share the same starting data and do not trust the same data, this will create misalignment.
Ultimately, Excel files are simply not communication tools, whereas their content should be consultable by a number of stakeholders of the industrial production chain.
Excel is a tool known to everyone, but it is not made for extensive professional collaboration. The files created by some employees can get lost, fail to send, be deleted, or simply forgotten. The lack of independence of this tool from its users is surely its greatest weakness. Not to mention the probable presence of an Excel "guru" in the company that would make collaboration more difficult and increase the group's dependence on a single individual.
There are today several solutions on the market that plug easily into your ERP and that will not only correct the small imperfections that are residual in the production of planning in an ERP, but that will also allow you to simulate "what if we manage to increase the OEE of our machines by such an amount," "if we manage to increase the capacity of our teams to operate," "if, conversely, we reduce it," "if we are obliged to take into account a raw-material lead time that the ERP is not yet aware of." These solutions are much more responsive, much more in anticipation.
Obviously, moving to a digital solution involves an incompressible project-management time, but an industrial planning solution 4.0 is a tool that will increase the capacities of your entire production chain.
→ Learn more about implementing a digital solution at an industrial site
1. Oplit
Oplit is a responsive, collaborative, and data-driven industrial-production organization solution. It is part of the fourth industrial revolution to improve the profitability of its customers. It is built around three main axes:
Planning : define your master production schedule and adapt your organization by simply visualizing the impact of your assumptions. Make the right decisions and improve your site's load rate and service level.
Load-capacity balance simulation
Production-progress tracking
Scheduling : increase your service level thanks to responsive scheduling by optimizing the allocation of your operations through simple planning. Oplit allows real-time progress tracking and easy identification of unforeseen events.
Work-in-progress management (CONWIP method): track the WIP level at each workstation in real time, alert in case of an unforeseen event, and organize your production according to simple rules.
2. AGR Wholesale Dynamics
AGR Wholesale Dynamics manages the entire supply chain management process. Thanks to an integrated and highly automated process, from the initial product and the financial planning process to forecasts, reports, orders, and allocations.
AGR Wholesale Dynamics allows you to manage your supply chain in a streamlined and consistent way. It is a simple, fully integrated alternative that offers small and medium-sized wholesalers and distributors the same facilities as the "big players" at a much lower cost and with less complexity.
3. Arkieva Enterprise
Arkieva Enterprise's software solutions are an award-winning suite of collaborative and fully integrated supply chain modules that capture the unique elements of your organization rather than forcing your company to adapt to the software.
Arkieva Enterprise has a distinct architecture that isolates the needs for data extraction, data organization, and the delivery of functionality for the end user. The result is a solution that connects easily to many back-office systems, provides "out-of-the-box" planning features, and allows the planning application to be configured to adapt.
4. Colibri
Colibri was designed to be configurable and usable in a few days. The solution is distributed in SaaS mode (software as a service) in the Microsoft Azure cloud, which means simple installation, with no hidden costs or annual licenses.
Colibri's Strategic Planning solution offers different simulations based on demand assumptions and calculates the capacity of production lines. The company can then validate or modify the actions proposed by Colibri to reach its objectives. It can also manage and visualize the financial impact of the different capacity scenarios in order to make the best decisions.
5. Myfab
Myfab's Open-Prod ERP was developed for the manufacturing industry with a directly integrated GPAO (Computer-Aided Production Management) module. This tool makes it possible to manage all of production by providing a 360° view of the important parameters.
Thanks to features developed by manufacturers, for manufacturers, the Open-Prod ERP optimizes all costs and reduces lead times while improving margins. This industrial-production software thus makes it possible to quickly gain in productivity, efficiency, and quality.
