Rockwell Automation FactoryTalk Scheduler Users Guide - Manual (Page 14)

F ACTORY T ALK S CHEDULER U SER ’ S G UIDE
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BizBikes business problems
BizBikes has been losing market share to competitors due to both pricing pressure and
problems with on-time delivery. Business conditions have forced a transition from make-
to-stock to make-to-order, and the bicycle shops that receive the goods are complaining
about frequent late deliveries. Thin margins and decrease in market share have produced
losses for the past two quarters. A task force was set up to analyze the problem and to
recommend a solution that will improve key performance indicators, such as lowering our
manufacturing costs, shortening our production time, and improving our on-time delivery.
Challenges:
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Must quote accurately and meet delivery dates
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Compete with competitor information and alternative suppliers that are readily
accessible via Internet
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Must provide accurate, up-to-the-minute information on order and shop-floor resource
status to the rest of the organization
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Critical to monitor, analyze, and improve the manufacturing processes through up-to-
date software and information technology
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Must drive down the cost of manufacturing while maximizing resource utilization and
machine uptime
How FactoryTalk Scheduler will help solve the BizBikes
production problems
Through FactoryTalk Scheduler’s finite-capacity scheduling strategies and simulation-
based scheduling, the management and shop-floor teams at BizBikes now perform “what-
if” analyses of the production sequences in a fraction of the time they previously spent.
Implementing FactoryTalk Scheduler in their “toolbox” allows for the generation of
realistic production scenarios that show the effects of schedule changes, maintenance
downtimes, tooling, shifts, and other key factors that determine the factory capacity and
delivery times. In minutes, FactoryTalk Scheduler generates production schedules that
used to take hours, so the teams spend their time managing the bicycle orders, not
calculating capacity.
And with FactoryTalk Scheduler’s accurate representation of the system and its operation,
the teams at BizBikes can constantly monitor the factory’s performance and make timely
decisions to increase throughput and cut the WIP, overtime, and on-hand inventory.
In the next chapter, we’ll take a look at the impact of FactoryTalk Scheduler in the
BizBikes factory by first examining their manufacturing system.