Optimal planning & scheduling
Optimize the entire supply chain considering materials, physical resources (facilities and lines), and labor from materials procurement through manufacturing and/or distribution to markets and/or customers for either maximum profit or minimum cost and, as well, optimize short term (daily or less) schedules for minimum cost or time.
Achieving savings through all phases of the Planning & Scheduling process
Optimal Planning & Scheduling Solutions optimize utilization of resources to achieve manufacturing, sales, distribution, and/or service goals through all phases of the planning and scheduling process. Optimal Planning & Scheduling Solutions include the following:
- Supply Chain Planning, Capacity Planning, and Production Planning models optimize for maximum profit or minimum cost as may be elected by the user. Planning models consider many factors in optimizing resources for through definable future time periods, including time periods of different lengths thus allowing allows analysis of inventory build-up and the timing of an investment in new facilities.
- Scheduling models optimize a sequence of activities through a short term time frame for minimum cost.
- Shipping considering supply and demand, available and delivery dates, transportation means, etc.
Optimal Planning & Scheduling Solutions achieve measurable profit improvement and/or savings, typically 5-10%, often much more, compared to flawed spreadsheets and other less capable programs. As well, planning and scheduling errors are avoided thus facilitating smoother operations.
Optimal Planning Solutions, consider the following data:
- Raw material acquisition
- Raw material inventory
- Finished product production
- Intermediate product production
- Finished goods inventory
- Maximum Profit or Minimum Cost models.
- Shipments directly from plants to markets
- Shipments to distribution centers
- Shipments from distribution centers to markets
- Market demands with prices for each product
Optimal Scheduling Solutions, consider the following data:
- Manufacturing or production requirements by product
- Manufacturing process steps
- Manufacturing resources (departments, equipment, etc.)
- Minimum Cost model
- Product changeover and cleanup rules
FEATURES
Optimal provides optimization decision support guidance to meet your planning/or scheduling requirements considering and complying with critical elements.
FEATURES
Optimal provides optimization decision support guidance to meet your planning/or scheduling requirements considering and complying with critical elements.
Optimal Planning Solutions, consider the following data:
- Raw material acquisition
Raw material inventory - Finished product production
- Intermediate product production
- Finished goods inventory
- Maximum Profit or Minimum Cost models
- Shipments directly from plants to markets
- Shipments to distribution centers
- Shipments from distribution centers to markets
- Market demands with prices for each product
Optimal Scheduling Solutions, consider the following data:
- Manufacturing or production requirements by product
- Manufacturing process steps
- Manufacturing resources (departments, equipment, etc.)
- Minimum Cost model
- Product changeover and cleanup rules
models
Individual Models Include the following:
Planning:
Planning optimizes in a single computation the integrated sales, procurement and production problem for maximum profit planning optimization considering many user-definable variables and constraints.
Scheduling:
Scheduling optimizes in a single computation the integrated sales, procurement and production problem for maximum profit scheduling optimization considering many user-definable variables and constraints. Scheduling optimizes a sequence of activities through a short term time frame for minimum cost.
Planning optimizes in a single computation the integrated sales, procurement and production problem for maximum profit planning optimization considering many user-definable variables and constraints.
Scheduling optimizes in a single computation the integrated sales, procurement and production problem for maximum profit scheduling optimization considering many user-definable variables and constraints. Scheduling optimizes a sequence of activities through a short term time frame for minimum cost.
Optimal Solutions are cloud based thus facilitating rapid deployment and support, eliminating most IT support costs, and enabling regular, non-disruptive updates.
The Optimal interface includes powerful data import/export features to accelerate database construction. The Optimal API provides automated data exchange and optimization for tight connectivity with ERP systems.
HOSTING
HOSTING
applications
Optimal Supply Chain Planning, Optimal Distribution
Optimal Supply Chain Planning generates minimum cost or maximum profit manufacturing and distribution plans. Optimal considers raw material supply, forecast product demand for products by quantity and market price, inventory requirements by storage location, storage capacity and limits, distribution capacities, and other data. Measurable savings of 5-10%, often much more, are achieved by most users. Optimal reduces production costs by generating minimum cost or minimum time plans that meet product requirements, optimize production runs, increase order fulfillment, improve product mix, and reduce production conflicts.
Optimal Supply Chain Planning can consider as many time periods as necessary and these periods can be of different lengths. This feature allows analysis of inventory build-up and the timing of an investment in new facilities. Optimal provides decision support that addresses questions concerning operations, investment, recovery, and specific opportunities.
Capacity Planning
Optimal Capacity Planning optimizes production plans and capacity plans for several weeks or days into the future for manufacturing and/or distribution operations. Optimal considers raw material supply, forecast product demand, inventory requirements by storage location, storage capacity and limits, distribution capacities, and other data. Measurable savings of 3% or more are achieved by most users. Optimal reduces production costs by generating minimum cost or minimum time plans that meet product requirements, optimize production runs, increase order fulfillment, and reduce production conflicts.
Plans are generated considering the following:
- Production Requirements for the planning period based on forecast product (SKU) demand by ship dates and considering required and permissible inventory levels.
- Processing rates and costs for each product and product group considering all production and distribution processes and resources.
- Processing similar or compatible product during the same period.
Optimal Capacity Planning enables users to define elements of their production and distribution network including costs, production rates, and capacities. The system generates optimized plans considering production and distribution constraints. Output includes overall costs and times for producing and distributing product as well as reports by planning period showing the times and costs for each product through the network.
Optimal Production Scheduling
Optimal Production Scheduling optimizes process industry production schedules for one to a few days for minimum cost or minimum time. Optimal considers manufacturing requirements, product process steps, step sequences, and step resources to generate minimum cost or minimum time schedules. Most often, Optimal Production Scheduling is used in conjunction with Optimal Planning applications to determine optimized production schedules for several weeks or days and the production scheduling system generates the optimized daily schedule. Optimal reduces production costs by identifying schedules that meet manufacturing requirements, reduce production conflicts, and reduce costs.
Schedules are generated considering the following:
- Production Requirements for the scheduling horizon based on manufacturing requirements by day by product (SKU) including ship dates and quantities.
- Process Steps for each product.
- Process Resources for each Process Step with various capacities and costs for each Resource.
- Product and Resource preparation rules including setup time and cost for changeover between Products.
- Early and Late completion penalties by Product to address overtime costs.
Optimal Production Scheduling enables users to define elements of their production network including costs, production rates, and capacities. The system reports optimized schedules with times and costs for each product, production path, production step, and production resource.
Configurations
Optimal Planning & Scheduling configurations are available with features and pricing appropriate for any size of entity.
The configurations are:
SIMPLE
The Optimal Planning & Scheduling Solution, Simple Configuration, enables users to generate optimized planning and scheduling solutions to small problems in various industries with a few variables and constraints using a small model with very limited options. The Simple Configuration enables users learning about optimization to learn about the benefits of optimization in an educational size problem. Real world problems are larger and more complex.
BASIC
The Optimal Supply Chain Planning Solution, Basic Configuration, enables users in certain industries to generate optimized solutions to small planning and scheduling problems with a few variables and constraints using a small model with limited options. The Simple Configuration enables users to generate optimized supply chain and scheduling scenarios with relatively static Item costs and attribute values.
STANDARD
The Optimal Product Mix & Pricing Solution, Standard Configuration, enables users to generate optimized solutions to product mix and pricing problems with more variables and constraints than the Basic Configuration.
CORPORATE PLANNING ONLY
The Optimal Supply Chain Planning Solution, Corporate Configuration, is intended for medium and large single site operations. The Corporate Configuration enables users to generate optimized supply chain planning plans through all phases of the planning process. The Corporate Configuration provides users with comprehensive decision support for the integrated what to buy, what to sell, how to price problem, how to make, and how to distribute planning process. The Optimal API is included with the Corporate Configuration.
CORPORATE SCHEDULING ONLY
The Optimal Scheduling Solution, Corporate Configuration, is intended for medium and large single site operations. The Corporate Configuration enables users to generate optimized scheduling plans. The Corporate Configuration provides users with comprehensive decision support for the sequencing resource activities through the scheduling time period. The Optimal API is included with the Corporate Configuration.
ENTERPRISE
The Optimal Planning & Scheduling Solution, Enterprise Configuration, is intended for medium and large multi site operations and includes both Optimal Supply Chain Planning and Optimal Production Scheduling. The Optimal API is included with the Enterprise Configuration.
