Saving time on scheduling is a goal for many manufacturing businesses. More time spent helping production, less time administrating it.

We want Fraction ERP to be as simple as possible, so we've built three specific tools that complement our drag and drop scheduler.

They are; auto scheduling, pinned operations and shunting. They can work on their own or all together, so let me run through what they do, so you can see if they would work for your business.

Auto scheduling

When you first load an order onto Fraction ERP's scheduling board, the software will suggest start and end dates / times for each operation on your manufacturing route.

The auto scheduling function in Fraction allows you to repeat this process whenever you wish, which is great if you want to push all of your operations forward but aren't too concerned about what sequence you want to complete the operations in.

Pinned operations

But, if you are concerned about the sequence, or you don't want certain operations to be moved around by Fraction's scheduling process, you can use the pinned operations option.

You can quickly pin either an operation, or a whole works order, with a click or two.

When you run the auto schedule, or the shunting process (see below), Fraction will leave the pinned operations alone.

Shunting

Fraction's auto shunting function is great if you want to allow your operations to move along the scheduler's timeline in an automatic fashion. If you have operations that you aren't sure on how long they will take, instead of constantly having to drag them around the scheduling board, you can let Fraction do its thing.

Every fifteen minutes it will push operations that it believes are running overdue forward on the scheduler. One less task for you to undertake!

The combination

When you put these tools together, you can start to save hours every week from your scheduling activities.

For example:

• Load your works order on to the scheduling board.
• Move your critical operations around, using the drag and drop scheduler.
• Pin key operations or works orders.
• Auto schedule the order book if you get off track.
• Switch on the shunting feature to keep everything ticking over.
• Repeat the above steps as and when you need to change your manufacturing priorities.

The nuclear reset

If you need to wipe your scheduling board and start again, we have a button for that.

Press the clear schedule button (there is a clarification step before it does this!) and then choose how you want to schedule your resources. You can load up priority orders and then pin them and then press the auto schedule button.

We have made Fraction ERP to be flexible to help you schedule in a way that makes sense to you.

And, if you want a deeper dive into how Fraction ERP can help you to save time running your growing factory, please get in touch for a free online demo.