Effective production scheduling despite regular last-minute orders

The products Micromed manufactures are all made to order and are very complex in their combination and configuration. For many years, planning was done with paper and pencil or even just in the head of the shop floor manager. As the number of orders increased, scheduling software was needed to support planning in order to ensure delivery dates and keep track of orders in production. Today they schedule their production with the production scheduling software just plan it, and it is not only a better overview of the schedule and faster rescheduling that Micromed profits from today. 

Micromed develops innovative solutions for neurophysiology

The Micromed Group is a group of globally active medical technology companies that produce high-quality devices for neurophysiology. They offer innovative product solutions for routine EEG, intensive care, long-term monitoring, and mobile EEG recordings as well as for EMG, Evoked Potentials, SEEG, and sleep diagnostics. 

Increasing number of jobs and many last-minute orders no longer scales with manual scheduling 

The devices are produced in Treviso, Italy, the headquarters of the company group. Each device is assembled individually, which means that each order also includes its own job routine. As the number of orders increased, production planning and scheduling became more and more difficult.

Not only the increasing number of orders made manual planning more and more difficult. Almost every day, last-minute orders have to be moved around and the existing schedule has to be adjusted. 

We have to move things around almost every day.
- Valentina Degan, Production Schedule Manager at Micromed

just plan it was best scheduling solution

It was clear that a software solution for planning and scheduling had to be found quickly. So Micromed was looking for a web-based, easy-to-use- scheduling software allowing real-time scheduling, capacity monitoring, and an operator user interface.

We wanted a software-driven solution  - and just plan it ended up as the one with best value for money.
- Alessandro Pian, Group Operations Manager of Micromed

Visual scheduling with many benefits 

Production scheduling with just plan it does not only help to manage production. It has also a positive impact on communication between the team on the shop floor and between sales and production.

Micromed benefits from the use of just plan it especially in these 5 areas:

#1 Clear overview

The visual scheduler provides the production planner today with the necessary transparency of the scheduled orders, the capacity of the resources, and the delivery dates.

#2 Faster rescheduling

The scheduling engine of just plan it allows Micromed a faster, easier, and safer rescheduling.

#3 Last-minute order integration

With a better overview of the schedule, a priority-based job list, lots of visual decision support, and faster rescheduling, last-minute jobs can be added to the schedule much more conveniently.

#4 Better communication

The visual scheduler improves communication on the shop floor and increases personal responsibility. 

With jpi, we gain more robustness. If the person responsible for the schedule is not available, the team on the shop floor can see the orders and delivery dates in the schedule and act accordingly.
-Valentina Degan, Production Schedule Manager 

The communication between sales and production also improved since just plan it was implemented. Thanks to the overviews created by the visual scheduling software, production can now show how their workload is doing, and sales better understand why sometimes last-minute orders would overwhelm planning.

#5 No more missed jobs

As all jobs have to be entered properly in just plan it, no information can get missed.

"It is easier for us not to forget anything, because this was the case before. In just plan it, when you put a job in, you can't forget it. That was very helpful."
- Valentina Degan, Production Schedule Manager.

 

Quick go-live

Although just plan it was introduced at the end of the year, the phase when production is particularly hectic, the launch went smoothly.

"Already in the first session we could enter data and use the program, even if we had no idea about the software."
- Valentina Degan, Production Schedule Manager

And so just plan it could be put into productive use without delay, even during the hottest phase of the year.