Blog
Exploring the toolkit of the MPS planner: the Rough Cut Capacity Plan
Exploring the toolkit of the MPS planner: the Rough Cut Capacity Plan In this blog, we will give an introduction to one of the tools you will need to make a good master production schedule: the Rough Cut Capacity Plan. Before we start, let’s recap In one of the last...
What does a good Master Production Schedule look like? Stepping into “the slushy zone”
What does a good master production schedule look like? In this blog, we want to indicate what a good Master Production Schedule looks like in our opinion. Don’t mistake it for the detailed schedule. We posted a similar blog on the detailed schedule “What does a good,...
The basics of the Master Production Schedule: The result of a balancing act
The basics of the Master Production Schedule: The result of a balancing act Why do we discuss the basics? In the past three years, I have asked different master planners what their definition of their role was, and I got the following answers in different industries:...
How shall we organize planning? Planners and schedulers, or an end to end approach?
Planning can be organized in many different ways. The question on how we should organize it pops up in almost every planning project. Either the organization itself is topic for discussion, or the problems that arise within (and related to) the current organization....
Book Review: The Good Production Planner
The title creates high expectations. What is the answer to the question : when is someone a “good production planner”? Many give a different answer. It goes from "someone who knows all the concepts inside out and applies them meticulously, preferably supported by a...
Is your production schedule a wish list or a feasible target?
Don’t we all make ‘feasible schedules’? You might think it is obvious that you should make schedules feasible. In practice, infeasible schedules are made more often than feasible ones. And there is a reason why people make infeasible schedules: they don’t put...
What does a ‘good detailed schedule’ look like? Exploring “the frozen zone”
What does a 'good detailed schedule' look like? Exploring "the frozen zone" At the start of each project, we often ask our clients what they think a good schedule should look like. Depending on the interviewee’s role, we typically get the following answers: The...
Stability? Check! Now, what about flexibility?
In the last post, I mentioned the importance of stability and shared my own experience. I mentioned the amazing results you can achieve on different levels by keeping your schedule stable. However, I also mentioned that you can ‘build flexibility’ on top of stability...
Flexibility? Start with Stability
Is your plant proud to be 'flexible'? And how would the team leaders describe this flexibility? In some cases, on the production floor this really means chaos. In this post I share my own experiences and plead for setting up a plant for success by providing a stable...
Second anniversary
We founded Allics two years ago to help manufacturing companies improve their demand and supply planning processes. Because we believe that good plans not only enable the right balance between service level, inventory and cost, but also allow a good execution,...