The plan uses real available time, not guesswork
Shifts, breaks, holidays, and extra working days are all counted in, so the plan reflects the hours the plant actually has – not an average that's often wrong.
Production Planning
Sales promised a delivery date the plant never actually had room for
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The Setup
Inside the Operation
A gear and bearing manufacturer supplying multiple customers with regular orders plus the occasional big one. The production plan was built once a month in a spreadsheet, using rough guesses about how much the plant could actually make – not what the machines and shifts could really handle.
20
Machines across 3 shifts
12
Regular customers
1 Planner
Plan, made once a month
The Problems
Four ways the old system cost them every single week.
Manual planning created constant uncertainty, single-person dependency, and invisible capacity gaps across the shop floor.
The plan used a rough guess of plant capacity, not what the machines could actually do after holidays, breaks & shift changes were counted.
Sales gave customers a delivery date before checking if the plant could actually meet it.
Some machines were booked solid for weeks while others sat with nothing to do.
Once a plan was made, there was no easy way to check what would happen if demand changed - it just had to be lived with.
The Change
What Changed With Smart PPS
Delivery dates are checked before they're promised
Before committing to a customer, the plan can be tested against current demand and capacity, so promises are made with confidence, not hope.
Machine load is visible, so work gets balanced
The system shows which machines are packed and which have room, so work can be shifted before one line falls behind and another sits idle.
Estimated Impact
The Potential Impact of Smarter Planning
These are estimated ranges based on typical planning situations like this – not measured results from one specific customer.
10–15%
More of the plant's real capacity actually put to use
25-30%
Rush expediting caused by an unrealistic plan
Weeks → Days
Time to rebuild the plan when demand shifts
One → All
People who can check if a delivery date is realistic