BREAK FREE FROM CELLS ESCAPE FROM SPREADSHEETS

Transcription

1 BREAK FREE FROM CELLS ESCAPE FROM SPREADSHEETS EXPERIENCE THE POWER OF ADVANCED PLANNING AND SCHEDULING SYSTEMS

2 Executive summary Despite the existence of sophisticated and proven alternatives, too many firms are still largely reliant on spreadsheets to manage, report and execute complex and fast-moving functions including planning and scheduling. They are thus incurring significant penalties in cost, time and in their ability to respond quickly and appropriately to change. There are numerous disadvantages of spreadsheets. They are cumbersome to create, maintain, and change. They can be difficult or impossible to link into other systems, which can mean loss of functionality and incomplete modelling of the operations. They are difficult for non-specialists to understand in any meaningful sense and therefore to know what actions to take. The alternative is an advanced planning and scheduling system, such as Access Orchestrate.

3 Break free from cells - Escape from spreadsheets Too many firms are reliant on spreadsheets. Advanced planning and scheduling systems offer a speed and accuracy of planning and execution and a common understanding of what the plan is and how it will work. That is simply unachievable with conventional spreadsheets. Across all sectors of manufacturing industry, managers are still generally reliant on spreadsheets: recent surveys for Access revealed that 29% of warehouse managers rely on them as do 48% of supply chain managers (many other warehouses use purely manual methods). Even in finance, 63% of managers use spreadsheets to some extent, and 41% use only spreadsheets or manual methods. In planning and scheduling, as many as 90% of the firms we speak to have been using spreadsheets until they ve realised the need for something better. This may not matter in simple operations, but for complex and fast-moving tasks such as planning and scheduling, it does. In planning and scheduling not only individual variables but entire strategies and architectures may be rapidly evolving. Where many different users have separate needs for visibility, management by spreadsheet can appear only a little more user-friendly than management by machine code there are people who can do it, but why would you choose to? Familiar spreadsheets issues The disadvantages of spreadsheets for planning and scheduling are numerous. Firstly they re cumbersome to create, maintain, and change. Second, they can be difficult or impossible to link into other systems, which can mean loss of functionality and incomplete modelling of the operations. And thirdly, they re difficult for nonspecialists to understand in any meaningful sense and therefore to know what actions to take. It s sometimes said that if a typical set of spreadsheets for a manufacturing enterprise were printed in their entirety they d be the size of an aeroplane. Of course the user can drill down to find the numbers he s looking for, but typically the user will have no insight into whether the various links and formulae are actually giving a real world answer. Manufacturing spreadsheets are built by experts not only in creating spreadsheets but also in understanding the physical 29% 29% of warehouse managers rely on spreadsheets 48% 48% of supply chain managers rely on spreadsheets In planning and scheduling, as many as 90% of the firms we speak to have been using spreadsheets until they ve realised the need for something better. 63% 63% of finance managers use spreadsheets to some extent

4 ESCAPE FROM SPREADSHEETS processes and how these can be modelled in formulae. If that person is unavailable, it may be almost impossible for anyone else to understand how the spreadsheet is constructed and therefore how to amend it. Even if the original author is available, it may take the best part of a week to reprogram a spreadsheet to reflect, say, a desired change in working methods. It can also be difficult, sometimes verging on the impossible, to import data from other applications in a form that can be manipulated by the spreadsheet. As a result, the model of the manufacturing system that the spreadsheet attempts to represent may be deficient in critical parameters such as labour availability, tooling and maintenance allowances, or many of the factors that might derive from an ERP system. Works, sales and purchase orders generated in ERP need to be included in planning and scheduling along with visibility of whether, for example, a PO is likely to be delivered late, or a production order has been booked in before it is actually required. A further significant issue is that generally only one user can work on a spreadsheet at a time. If a company has an upstream and a downstream planner, this means they We can now react quickly to changes and plan years in advance allowing us to forecast intelligently, based on real-time data. Andrew Gardner, Planning Manager, Surepharm Services can t both update it simultaneously. Yet in real life the two are probably intimately linked and a successful plan will depend on constant iteration between upstream and downstream factors. These are all known and deepseated problems with the spreadsheet approach. Taking an advanced approach The alternative is an advanced planning & scheduling system, such as Access Orchestrate. What are firms and their users looking for in a single tool? Firstly they need day-to-day scheduling, based on a databasedriven common production plan and presented so that anyone can look at their individual area and see exactly what they re supposed to be doing and when. Secondly, capacity planning that brings together sales orders, work orders and purchase orders with all the relevant constraints to show whether and how on time delivery can be achieved. And third, in the event that capacity planning shows this isn t possible, users need to be able to perform what if? analyses. This includes laying on overtime, reprioritising jobs and subcontracting work to see when the job can be completed and then feeding this back into the database to generate a new schedule. This needs to be simple. There isn t time to reconfigure the spreadsheet because, for example, you want to see the effect of using a different combination of resources. It needs to be graphical, giving users an easy to understand visual representation of what has to be done, whether in terms of the day s or week s production if things are going well, or otherwise to rethink and reschedule. It should be possible to display the plan at a morning production meeting in a form that lets everyone see what was or wasn t achieved yesterday, and what needs to happen. Then if necessary realign the plan with the new reality, in a timescale which allows everyone to move on with the revised plan without losing days. At the same time, and with the same tool, other managers may need to look at mid-range forecasts of known sales for the next 2-6 weeks, or longer range, perhaps 3-6 months, planning for say a summer holiday shutdown. These may all be interlinked postponing an order because of short-term pressure

5 may impact on the holiday cover required in a couple of months. One Access customer, Lufthansa Technik Landing Gear Services, has planned maintenance contracts that are predictable many months out, but also has to respond instantly to Aircraft On Ground repair requirements. Fine detail planning, especially with AOG, can t start until the undergear has been stripped down and inspected. Access Orchestrate has reduced planning time by 20-30% with more expected, while build to schedule performance has been raised from 70-80% to 95%. Another customer, Surepharm Services, a contract pharmaceutical producer with a complex product mix, reports a 75-80% increase in planning and scheduling capacity as well as improvement in on time delivery, and also in stock control, a particularly critical issue in pharmaceuticals. Going advanced works for large and small businesses There is some feeling that APS is for the larger and more sophisticated companies, but this is not so indeed, small manufacturers may be the most likely to have critical constraints on resources that have to be planned and scheduled around, and also less likely to retain skilled spreadsheet-meisters. The benefits for large, complex enterprises that may, for example, be juggling output between several facilities perhaps in different countries, are also apparent. The most easily seen benefit is in the reduction in planning time, and possibly the number of planners required. Other benefits are less obvious but very real. For example, one Access customer with a 24/7, three shift production system found supervisors taking an hour at each shift handover to explain the current situation six hours a day of fairly pricey labour that can be better used. Similarly, a system that is highly visual and always current means that maintenance staff, for example, know exactly when a machine will be available to them, so they can be prepared for an immediate start without having to wait around for a job to finish. Accuracy, efficiency and productivity all can be improved as the production plan is running on live data, while downtime can be tracked and driven out as the use of accurate data reduces the need for formal or informal buffers. In a wider sense APS provides a solid foundation for continuous improvement projects. Communication with customers can also be improved both at the time of taking the order and in the course of the build. The ability to show a customer graphically how their order fits into the plan, or if things have gone a little wrong, establishes confidence in the recovery plan. This is of great value in attracting and retaining sales. For many manufacturers this may be the key benefit. Typically in engineering we hear that buyers love the company, the product, the quality, even the cost but they don t believe the delivery time. With management by spreadsheet, the most they can typically be shown is this week s plan (if they can read the spreadsheet) and some rough cut capacity planning. If their job isn t in the current week s plan, they re none the wiser about their chances of delivery. An APS like Access Orchestrate can look as far out as required, in an understandable form that can be displayed on the factory floor, or streamed to the sales force, the customer, or indeed to critical suppliers. Access customer Walker Precision Engineering provides a good example. This multisite contract manufacturer has a complex and varying product mix. It was finding that the effort to meet demand through intensive use of machinery was seriously damaging on-time delivery to the extent that customers were losing confidence. Implementing Access Orchestrate, with shopfloor screens for production staff, worktop access for account managers tracking customer orders, and wireless tablets to capture changes on the shopfloor, has greatly improved on time deliveries and restored customer confidence. Making on time delivery (a standard Orchestrate report) the dominant KPI has created healthy competition among supervisors and business units, and where an order is experiencing a real problem, customers now believe that the firm is still in control and has a viable plan. As we can see, advanced planning ans scheduling systems can offer speed and accuracy of planning and execution, and a common understanding of what the plan is and how it will work. That is simply unachievable with conventional spreadsheets. The spreadsheet will never die: anywhere that data is tabulated in order to have a formula applied there s a spreadsheet but they ve had their day as the visible face of management tools. After reading this whitepaper, you ll understand how Access can: 1 Remove manual processes 2 Eliminate 3 Improve and save your business time and money data entry errors with accurate automated processes your capacity planning and maximize productivity Visit: to find out more

6 Customer case study Access Orchestrate has dramatically cut the time taken in planning and has given us an accurate end to end planning view for the first time, helping us to improve productivity. Brett Lambourne, Planning & Scheduling Manager About Access We are a leading author of integrated business management software. One of the UK s top five fastest-growing software developers (Sunday Times Buyout Track 100), over 10,000 businesses and not-for-profit organisations use Access to unlock their potential. Offering solutions for ERP, finance, HR, payroll, warehousing, business intelligence, PSA and manufacturing, our vertical expertise and template solutions allow for rapid and easy deployment, whatever your industry or sector tellmemore@theaccessgroup.com