Your work planning is likely the bottleneck in your production process if the time between a confirmed order and the start of production is longer than the production itself. This is a common bottleneck in the manufacturing industry, especially for companies that provide custom-made products. In this article, we answer the most frequently asked questions about identifying, measuring, and resolving slow work planning. <\/p>\n
The clearest signs of slow work planning are: orders that take a long time to reach the shop floor, employees who regularly ask for clarification on drawings, and repeated errors in production orders that must be corrected afterward. If you recognize these patterns, work planning is almost certainly a bottleneck. <\/p>\n
Other practical signs include:<\/p>\n
The danger is that these signs creep in gradually. You get used to them. But in the meantime, pressure mounts, delivery reliability declines, and frustration grows among both employees and customers. <\/p>\n
You measure the lead time for work planning by tracking the time between order confirmation and the point at which all production documents are ready for the shop floor. Then compare this time with the actual production time to determine which part takes up the most time. <\/p>\n
An easy way to get started is to keep track of three timestamps per order:<\/p>\n
The difference between time points 1 and 2 is your lead time for work planning. If that is greater than the difference between time points 2 and 3, then work planning is your bottleneck. Even without advanced software, you can track this in a simple overview. The result gives you immediate insight into where the greatest gains can be made. <\/p>\n
The most common causes of slow work planning are manual and error-prone processes, the lack of standardized work methods, and the use of standalone, unintegrated software tools. Each of these factors increases the likelihood of errors and slows the flow of information to the shop floor. <\/p>\n
In practice, we see the following causes most frequently:<\/p>\n
It\u2019s striking that many companies think the problem lies with the people, when in fact it lies with the system. An employee who works with separate tools and doesn\u2019t have automated output simply can\u2019t be as fast as someone who works with integrated software. <\/p>\n
You compare work planning with other bottlenecks by mapping out the wait time and processing time for each process step. The step with the highest ratio of wait time to processing time is usually the actual bottleneck. For custom manufacturers, work planning often scores worse in this regard than actual production. <\/p>\n
A useful way to visualize this is through a simple value stream analysis. You trace the order from request to delivery and note the following for each step: <\/p>\n
Many manufacturing companies are discovering that while the shop floor itself is performing well, orders are stuck in a long queue at the work planning stage. This is a valuable insight, because it means that investments in additional machinery or personnel on the shop floor will have little effect as long as work planning is limiting the flow of work. <\/p>\n
Tools that speed up work planning include integrated CAD software with automatic output generation, ERP systems that link directly to design data, and configurators that allow for the rapid development of custom variants. The greatest benefit comes from eliminating manual steps between design and production. <\/p>\n
Depending on your situation, the following types of tools are the most effective:<\/p>\n
The choice of tools depends heavily on your industry. Companies in the manufacturing and furniture-making sectors<\/a> have different needs than machine builders, but the principle is the same: the fewer manual steps, the faster and more reliable the work planning. <\/p>\n It\u2019s time to automate your work planning when the lead time for work planning is consistently longer than the production time, when errors caused by manual work regularly lead to rework, or when your growth ambitions are limited because work planning can\u2019t keep up with capacity.<\/p>\n Practical indicators that automation is urgently needed:<\/p>\n Automation doesn’t have to happen all at once. Many companies start by automating the most time-consuming steps, such as generating cutting lists or linking CAD to their order system, and build on that from there. Be sure to check out the available training courses<\/a> to discover how you can quickly get your employees on board with new ways of working. <\/p>\n IronCAD offers a direct solution to the most common bottlenecks in production planning. The software is designed for speed and flexibility, allowing designers to develop custom variations in minutes rather than hours. Here are the specific benefits for your production planning: <\/p>\nWhen is it time to automate your work planning?<\/h2>\n
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How IronCAD Helps Resolve a Bottleneck in Work Planning<\/h2>\n
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