I need examples of Project templates for manufacturing.

[cherylch]

Does anyone have any examples of their project tracking that they would like
to share? I looked through all of the on-line templates without any results.
Each one of our units sold is a task in the "current" project. As the tasks
are built and shipped, we move them to the "completed" project. I would be
interested in any ideas of alternate methods of tracking and scheduling
resource teams.

 

[Rod Gill]

Manufacturing is not a project, as there is no set start and finish (unless
you do batch production of large items. Project does not therefore make a
good tool for scheduling production and for that reason there are no
production templates that I have seen.

You either need to get production tracking software, or fudge Project into
doing what you need.

 

[cherylch]

We don't manufacture a bunch of "things" as an example; let's say if we made
pens. We provide customization to large pieces of equipment and each piece
of equipment is different and owned by different companies. We are trying to
track the scheduling of the bays that these units will be occupying and the
resources devoted to customizing them. When the unit is done, it ships to
the owners and the next component moves into the vacant bay. There is a
start and finish date for each and every one of the units. If we made them
separate projects, we would not be able to see the gannt with all of the
tasks together on one page.

If batch processing were to be done, how would that work?

 

[Balzyone]

The biggest component of this is how well have you defined the business
process. If you know exactly what steps are taken and the timeframes, you
could set up a process template as an (*.mpt) file. That would allow you to
open a new template for each new process. You could then create individual
files for each process and link them to a master schedule and a master
resource pool. This would give you the flexibility you might need in a
production environment. If you have the process defined well enough you
could then link the successive tasks for each area. This would give you the
flow you may be looking for.