Autonomous Scheduling and Process Shells
I'll start this text with a phrase from Lean guru Shigeo Shingo that is, to say the least, funny:
"When you buy a banana, all you want is the fruit and not the peel. But you have to pay for the peel just the same. The peel is a loss and the consumer shouldn't pay for that loss."
Shingo was so obsessed with reducing losses that he was able to identify this even in objects of nature that we see every day. This should be a skill that every production engineer strives to develop. And when it comes to planning and scheduling processes, it's no different. In supply chains that are more robust and already adapted to APS(Advanced Planning and Scheduling), the process of production sequencing can become an almost bureaucratic process for the key-user. It's worth pointing out that we're talking here about companies whose processes are extremely structured. For example, companies that generate various scheduling scenarios, with no manual intervention in the scheduling, and the choice of which scenario to go ahead with is decided on the basis of various key indicators. Because this process is so well consolidated and standardized, we can configure the APS solution to carry out a new schedule automatically. However, the frequency of rescheduling is a very specific matter for each company, because here we are dealing with a very important trade-off for the production system, which is the discussion between responsiveness and rigidity. The optimum point between these two factors must be very well thought out. If we move in a very responsive direction, i.e. where we can change the schedule in the very short term, we run the risk of leaving production with little confidence in planning the execution of orders. If we move in a very rigid direction, i.e. where we reschedule infrequently, we run the risk of unsettling production and not adjusting the schedule in time. Finding thissweet spot is a very broad topic and perhaps the most challenging when implementing an autonomous scheduling solution. Now, once you have found the ideal rescheduling cadence, there are several advantages. The first (and most obvious) is saving the user time for monitoring and improving the scheduling process. Secondly, the standardization of the process is intensified and this gives more predictability to production and other support areas. Another gain is the adaptability of the schedule to external events and their impact on the schedule in a more agile way. All these gains always come from an inquisitive look at the process. Never forget that we can improve the way we do things. Shingo was even able to complain about the way nature "produces" bananas, so there's no limit to how much we can't look at the losses in our daily lives.Did you like it? Let us know what "banana peels" you've noticed in your business today.
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