The primary movers for the project at London were Joe Nickel and Mike Hopkins, PPIC Supervisor and Senior Programmer Analyst respectively. In the words of Joe Nickel, “The Visual Schedule Board has dramatically improved our ability to control color changes and major setups on our molding presses. We now tie Assembly schedules directly to customer releases and Molding capacity.” He adds, “The VSB's visual presentation allows us to instantly see where we can adjust schedules in response to what's happening on the shop floor and customer releases.”

London uses TRANS4M, the complete Automotive ERP solution from Infor, to handle their EDI, Automotive Releases and Shipments, Production Planning and Repetitive Purchasing. VSB, also supplied by Infor, integrates fully into TRANS4M, providing a visual presentation of the schedule and allowing updates when and as required.

 

Mike Hopkins created a number of reports from the VSB and TRANS4M databases. For example, each shift receives a “Master Schedule” detailing the production schedule for the current day plus the next two days. The “Master Schedule” is provided to shift supervisors at the start of each shift, with all information updated through the end of the previous shift. “Production Job Tickets” are also prepared with all of the information needed for a production-run and to report results.

The Visual Scheduling Board is used by London Industries to schedule 30 presses and 22 Assembly Cells. Here's how London does it:

• Weekly Releases, 830 and 862 transactions, are received from customers via EDI on Monday morning. TRANS4M updates the order data and MRP is run.

• Suggested production orders created for Assembly move to VSB, where the Assembly Planner/Scheduler updates the schedule to reflect the new requirements – for the most part this is a “drag-and-drop” exercise. Conflicts are resolved and the schedule is adjusted.

• The VSB Assembly Schedule is then uploaded to TRANS4M as “Firm Planned Orders” and MRP is run again to create suggested production for Molding, based on the Assembly Schedule.

• Molding suggested orders are then loaded to VSB and the Molding Planner/ Scheduler goes to work on the molding schedule.

• This whole scheduling effort is done within hours each Monday.

• TRANS4M MRP is run daily to highlight any exceptions that may require action. Production schedules may then be adjusted for individual items.

London also has defined conventions that take advantage of unique VSB attributes:

• Color coding is used on the Visual Schedule to show the color of each part. This allows the scheduler to readily see where color changes are occurring.

• "Freeze lines” are used, by molding press - suggested schedule changes occur only after the “freeze” period. The freeze period can be different for each press.

• All of the data in the VSB database is obtained from TRANS4M. The VSB schedule is completely and accurately fed back to TRANS4M.

Benefits that London sees from using VSB:

• Fast reaction to changing circumstances

• Reduction in time lost to set-up and changeovers

• Increased scheduling flexibility

• Improved ability to meet customer release requirements

• Increased production efficiency

• Improved communication with operations manager and supervisors

• Reduction in Quality exceptions

• Better visibility of potential bottlenecks improves planning

• Visibility of multi-cavity molds keeps production in balance and aids purchasing

• Provides highly a accurate picture of the production schedule to purchasing