Production Scheduling Optimization
Hit ship dates without rebuilding the schedule every morning.
When the schedule lives in a spreadsheet or on a whiteboard, it's out of date by lunch. We find what keeps breaking it, then build a scheduling system planned around your real capacity.
Free 30-minute call, no obligation
Sound familiar?
The schedule is set by 7 a.m. and wrong by 10.
Most schedules start out reasonable. Then a machine goes down, a material delivery runs late, or a rush order jumps the line, and someone spends the rest of the day moving jobs around by hand. Customers get ship dates that keep changing, and overtime fills the gap.
- Ship dates slip, and customers hear about it late
- The schedule lives in a spreadsheet or on a whiteboard that one person maintains
- Rush orders and hot jobs reshuffle everything
- Jobs start before the material or tooling is ready
- Some machines sit idle while others are buried
- Overtime is how the schedule gets back on track
Why it happens
It's rarely a people problem. It's an information problem.
Capacity is a guess
Schedules assume machines and people are available when setups, maintenance, and absences say otherwise.
The schedule can't see what's coming
Material arrivals, tooling, and delays upstream live in other systems, so the plan finds out last.
Every change ripples by hand
Moving one job means rechecking everything after it, so people stop updating the plan.
Priorities aren't clear
When everything is urgent, the loudest request wins and the plan loses.
None of this means your team is doing a bad job. It means they're working without the information they need.
Step 1: Scheduling assessment
See what's really driving late orders.
We look at how jobs actually move through your operation and compare the plan with what really happened. Then we put a dollar value on what we find.
What we look at
- On-time delivery: which orders ship late, how late, and why
- Real capacity: setups, changeovers, and available hours by machine and shift
- Bottlenecks: where work waits, and which resources set the pace
- Schedule changes: how often the plan changes and what triggers it
- Material and tooling readiness: how often jobs start without what they need
What you get
A report with the cost of late orders, expediting, and overtime, the bottlenecks and root causes, quick wins you can act on right away, and a recommended plan with expected payback.
Timeline: About 2 to 3 weeks as a Single Area Assessment, or combine it with other areas in a Multi-Area Assessment.
Step 2: A schedule built on real capacity
A schedule your team can trust, and keep current.
A better spreadsheet won't hold up for long. We build a scheduling system around your machines, people, and materials, so the plan reflects what's actually possible and updates when things change.
Depending on what we find, it can include:
- Scheduling based on real capacity by machine, line, and shift
- Material and tooling checks before a job is released
- Drag-and-drop rescheduling that shows the effect on every ship date
- Clear priority rules for rush orders and hot jobs
- Live job status from the people doing the work
- A connection to the systems you already use for orders and materials
After launch, we track on-time delivery and overtime month by month, so you can see the return.
Results
One live view of the operation, and 95% schedule attainment.
A building materials manufacturer was running on scattered spreadsheets and end-of-week reports. We built a three-tier Power BI suite that gives leadership one live view of sales, operations, and production.
95%
schedule attainment
15%
waste reduction
We don't run your schedule for you or replace your planners. We give them a system that keeps the plan realistic and current.
Common questions
Questions about production scheduling
Do we need to replace our ERP's scheduling module?
No. Many ERP scheduling modules assume capacity that isn't really there. We build the scheduling layer your team actually uses and connect it to the order and material data your ERP already has.
Does this work for high-mix, low-volume shops?
Yes. The more variety you run, the more a schedule built on real capacity and setups helps. The assessment shapes the system around how your work really flows.
Will our planners have to start over?
No. We build around how they plan today, and they help shape the system during Design & Scope, so it fits the way they already work.
How fast will we see results?
Quick wins from the assessment can often be acted on right away. The system itself is built in phases, so the most valuable piece goes live first.
Get started
Find out what late orders are really costing you.
Talk to an expert about what keeps breaking your schedule and whether a scheduling assessment is the right first step.