MS Project as production scheduling tool

[Phil Wilson]

Hi Guys

I'm trying to evaluate how suitable MS Project would be as a
production scheduling tool.

We are a large format printing company, producing hard and soft back
books for education and retail. We have a wide array of printing and
finishing machinery e.g. printing presses, guillotines, binding lines
etc ... and run 24 x 7. A typical job might be in production for a
month, and comprise of 20 discreet operations.

We use an MIS system designed specifically for printing companies, but
they are looking for too much money for their scheduling module. We
are trying to find a more cost effective solution.

If any one has any experience of using Project for production
scheduling, I'd appreciate any feedback.

Cheers
Phil

 

[Dave W]

It would not be very good at that. MS Project is a project planning and
scheduling product. There are other products, such as Tivoli Workload
Scheduler, that are for production scheduling.

 

[Steve House]

In general Project is not well suited for production scheduling however
there are exceptions and your situation might be one. The key is whether
your production environment fits the classic definition of a "project" - a
series of activities with observable starting and ending points that results
in a unique product or service. Since a job has a time that it enters the
shop and a definite point in time when that particular job has ended and
each job I presume has its own unique specifications and requirements, you
could treat each one as a separate project and use MSP to schedule all the
intervening activities.

That being said, I can't imagine that there aren't a number of purpose built
scheduling packages already around for the printing industry. You might
find that re-inventing the wheel by adapting Project is less cost effective
than just buying the software you need even if the initial cost of Project
is less.

 

[Anders]

I'm currently setting up MS Project for the means of
production scheduling in an assembly workshop. It is
somewhat cumbersome but will fullfill our requirements.
Among the advantages are a good overview via Gantt-
charts, a clear picture of required capacity and a common
plattform conecting different departments. On the
negative side I find that you are dependant on some
predefined solutions and that a fair amount
of "designing" MSP to your need is required. Still I
think it may fit your needs, especially as you seem to
have "one of".

Best regards,
Anders

 

[Scott McClure]

In the FWIW category, we use it in a fairly large MRO shop. That is, we do
major maintenance on heavy-life helicopters (the commercial version of the
Chinook used by the military). This work is very complex and requires about
200 mechanics in 6 shops putting up to 25,000 hours or work over 1.5 years.
Sometimes it's only a couple of weeks and less then 5,000 hours. We are
into our second year of working with this and, like the last poster, it does
what we need it to do although it's not exactly as MS envisioned it being
used. For instance, the guys on the floor don't have computers (not what
you'd call your typical cubical-based knowledge worker) but that's who we
have to schedule. The super of each shop has the computer but doesn't do
the time entry -- that comes through our ERP system. Not a lot of luck
automating the interface for the hours for a variety of reasons (happy to
take up offline if you're intersted). Still, it is helping us get a handle
on something that has been nothing but art in the past.

Scott

 

[Phil Wilson]

Hi Guys

I'm trying to evaluate how suitable MS Project would be as a
production scheduling tool.

We are a large format printing company, producing hard and soft back
books for education and retail. We have a wide array of printing and
finishing machinery e.g. printing presses, guillotines, binding lines
etc ... and run 24 x 7. A typical job might be in production for a
month, and comprise of 20 discreet operations.

We use an MIS system designed specifically for printing companies, but
they are looking for too much money for their scheduling module. We
are trying to find a more cost effective solution.

If any one has any experience of using Project for production
scheduling, I'd appreciate any feedback.

Cheers
Phil

Hi Guys

Thank you all very much for your advice and your comments. It's much
appreciated, and has confirmed my initial feeling that MSP is not
really suited for production scheduling.

Thanks again, and seasons greeting to you all!

Cheers
Phil