Production Scheduling software was traditionally based on infinite capacity
assumptions in most ERP systems. From the early 1980's it was possible
to add third-party tools integrated with ERP to also deliver finite
scheduling. As a form of Production Scheduling software,
Finite Capacity Scheduling (FCS) recognized finite capacity on work centers
by defining working calendars, including specific holidays which can vary by
work-center, or even by machine within each work center. This improved
scheduling gives manufacturing companies visibility of their capability to
deliver a product when promised, a significant improvement in the state of
From the mid 1990's Production Scheduling Software products were improved
to offer "Advanced Planning and Scheduling" (APS) which extended the
power of FCS by also recognizing material constraints, including both
on-hand inventory as well as planned future materials deliveries from open
JobTime's Production Scheduling Software products now make Lean /
Just-in-Time scheduling possible for many manufacturers. Lean has
become especially interesting today. The original Henry-Ford Black Model-T
Ford version of "Lean" is based on a demand-pull variation of standard
products, with as little variability as possible. In these cases, a useful
tool is the concept of Line-Balancing, which defines optimal assignment of
tasks to job-positions, and grouping job-positions into Cells. In
these environments, Lean succeeds especially well with low-variability
Lean is more challenging to implement in highly variable value-line
applications, including job-shops, assembly shops, and engineer-to-order.
Previously Advanced Planning and Scheduling software was limited to
repetitive, standard, high-volume and make-to-stock production.
JobTime Systems extends the Just in Time manufacturing principles into
high-variability value-line manufacturing.
JobTime's production scheduling software models Finite Capacity Scheduling,
according the to following elements:
- Working calendars that express working days of the week, shift lengths,
and the starting time of each shift.
- Work Centers mean "groups of like resources". This normally
includes equipment, tools, labor. But JobTime's Production Scheduling
software lets you expand secondary resource constraints to include
additional types of resources which can influence plant capacity: peak
power, available floor space, process-unit capacity, consumables, etc.
To enhance production scheduling software, JobTime considers a broader
definition of capacity in your shop. Accurate constraint modeling
includes the ability to reflect shop conditions, which include, but are not
limited to the following examples:
- Recognition of constraints on which alternate equipment work stations
(or labor operators) can perform certain jobs
- Recognition of both a fixed setup time as well as a quantity dependent
variable process time on each operation step.
- Recognition of multiple resource constraints demanded by the same
operation such as equipment, tools, labor.
- Recognition of a variable crew size, fractional or multiple resources
required, per operation.
- Recognition of a split factor (number of splits allowed) per operation
across multiple work stations of the work center.
- Re-sequence jobs to group setup matches
between orders for optimal efficiency
- Earliest time-of-day to allow an operation to start, which can vary by
part & routing (reflects constraints such as heat, humidity, light, or to
limit work to specific shifts within the calendar)
- Latest time-of-day to allow an operation to start, which can vary by
part & routing (reflects process cut-off timed, or shift preferences
by part, within the work-center calendar)
- Resource seized and held during a series of consecutive operations (same
operator throughout a series of tasks, avoid inter-stage obsolescence, or to
guarantee downstream capacity).
- Recognition of assembly sequencing constraints of work-orders assembly
links that follow a given Bill-of-Materials product structure.
JobTime Systems, Inc. (JSI), announced the world's first standalone
Finite Capacity Scheduling system in August, 1984. Since that
time, JSI has specialized in production scheduling software to improve
manufacturing on-time performance, and supports all current popular
philosophies of scheduling.
JobTime has been applied successfully in discrete, repetitive, process,
engineer to order and assemble to order manufacturing.
JobTime also gives you the modeling power you will need to implement
Advanced Planning and Scheduling without
forcing you to learn computer programming. We can show the typical
shop scheduler, with 3 days of basic training,
how to to accurately model your shop constraints for any
environment, including make to order, assemble to order, engineer to order,
and process manufacturing operations.
JobTime also supports longer range
Advanced Planning and Scheduling (APS) . APS
supports the supply chain, because it can see customer forecasts, vendor
deliveries, and assured scheduling that will synchronize both material and
capacity constraints over a long-term planning horizon. Forecast
demand and/or planned orders can be input from either ERP or JobTime's own
module to generate future work loads of 12 to 18 months into the
All JobTime scheduling products are Y2K compatible
and give detailed scheduling on each
operation step of every work order, even down to the minute, while
recognizing multiple resource constraints, and sequencing to optimize and
group like setups in bottleneck work centers.
JobTime's Advanced Planning and Scheduling can recognize
BOM make-item assembly constraints, ERP
material supply pegging allocations, all with
supporting activity drill-down, accurately planned even down to
JobTimeŽ 5 is also fast, scheduling a
true 30,000 detailed operations per minute
on today's 2.0 Gigahertz PC's.
Computer speeds will vary with the complexity of modeling, and the total
number of events required to fully process all the aspects of each
JobTime helps you rapidly model the most detailed and challenging
scheduling problems, without the need for complex computer programming,
because JobTime modeling is based on standard data entry screens to select
and enable features.
JSI also offers a full range of services including:
- customization and
Our primary focus is Finite Capacity Short
Interval Scheduling combined with
Advanced Demand and Capacity Planning. JobTime also supports
Just-in-Time and Drum-Buffer-Rope scheduling capabilities.
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