The overall objective of SFC+PLUS is to schedule and control production activities to meet your master production schedule. The AMAPS+PLUS material systems plan and control material requirements and inventory levels. SFC+PLUS converts your material plan manufacturing requirements into a meaningful production schedule, and measures the effectiveness and efficiency of the manufacturing resources. Therefore, the four general functions of Shop Floor Control are to provide:
The on-line Work Center Dispatch List is the means to communicate the priority of jobs. Starting with the order due dates derived by Material Requirements Planning, operations are backscheduled and then prioritized for each work-center based on the scheduling and priority parameters provided by the user. The scrollable spreadsheet in the List provides the detail information, including the "can build" quantity, for each of the scheduled operations. The foreman can select the status of operations to be included in the prioritization.
The Dispatch List graphically provides the load versus capacity situation over the next 15 days as well as a cumulative load and capacity. The work center supervisor uses this detail operation and capacity vs load information to determine whether the priority sequence should be changed. The supervisor may want to analyze a forward schedule simulation to reschedule past due work. This real-time capability allows the supervisor to quickly test alternative scenarios and immediately evaluate their impact. To accept the new schedule based on the simulation, the supervisor simply clicks the Update button and the operations are rescheduled, hopefully bringing the "real" production plan in line with the master production schedule.
As the production schedule is executed, the work performed is captured by SFC+PLUS through pop-up windows to optionally to report on:
SFC+PLUS also tracks the movement of material between operations. Flexible interoperation material movement control options let you define whether interoperation control is:
You can use any of these methods either exclusively or in combination, depending on the type and level of control desired.
The Dispatch List prioritizes the work to be done in a work center based on the scheduling rules. It displays load vs. capacity on both a period and cumulative basis. SFC+PLUS provides production management with both summarized and detailed visibility of shop floor activity. Summary status of the work center is provided on the Dispatch List. One click of the Detail button brings up the Order Operation Detail window that provides additional status information on the disposition of the selected operation. A click on the Production Order Status icon provides the detail visibility of all operations on the order.
Feedback on the performance of work centers is an important part of both short-range production control and long-term productivity improvement. SFC+PLUS provides you with comprehensive work center performance reporting based on:
Efficiency is the ratio of earned load (standard direct hours) to utilized capacity (actual direct hours) and depicts the performance relative to standard times. Efficiency is calculated as follows:
Efficiency = Standard Direct Hours⁄Actual Direct Hours
Utilization is a measure of the work performed in relation to resource capacity. SFC+PLUS provides this measurement using two definitions of resource utilization and capacity:
Available Utilization = Actual Direct Hours⁄ Available Direct Capacity
Actual Utilization = Actual Direct Hours⁄ Actual Direct + Indirect Hours
Productivity gives you measurements of overall input/output performance by comparing the earned load (standard direct hours) for the period to resource capacity. Like utilization, SFC+PLUS monitors both available and actual productivity:
Available Productivity = Standard Direct Hours⁄ Available Direct Capacity
Actual Productivity = Standard Direct Hours⁄ (Actual Direct + Indirect Hours)
SFC+PLUS enables you to maintain control of your production processes at the operation level. Monitoring progress at this level assures that you are aware of potential scheduling problems in advance. SFC+PLUS establishes the production schedules and priorities to meet your material plan, it collects and monitors performance of shop floor activities and enables you to fine-tune your schedules and priorities to optimize resource efficiency, utilization, and productivity. SFC+PLUS provides the visibility and reporting to make sure your master schedule and time-phased material plans are accurate, achievable, and efficiently executed, all which contribute to cost-effective production and timely customer shipments.