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Scheduling glass production is an industrial-scale balancing act, which requires experience, expertise and a substantial amount of number crunching.
The best schedulers – that is, the people and also the software they are working with – are focused not only on producing customer orders in time but also feeding the factory so that expensive machines are fully utilised and staff remain productive with minimal time lost to changeovers.
But in the glass industry, smart scheduling also means minimising glass waste, with optimal cutting, and schedules that avoid repeated handling to reduce breakages.
No two days the same
If every day were the same, you would quickly find an optimal production schedule and almost any software package would be up to the task of creating your schedules.
But this is an industry that never stands still, where you never know what mix of orders will come in and where a big new customer or innovative new product will require a rethink on the factory floor.
And that changeability means that inflexible approaches, or software that has production rules hard coded, can leave you out of options and out of pocket, too.
Configurable rules for flexible production scheduling
With Gtrak, production scheduling is fast and highly effective. It allows you to group work in whatever ways make most sense for your business, and it makes it easy to sort and prioritise within those groups.
We reckon that nobody knows your business as well as you do, so Gtrak allows you to define your own bespoke rules for grouping and sorting. You can define as many rules as you need using our powerful, intuitive rule editor. And if something changes you can modify or create new rules there and then.
When you are using the Gtrak production scheduler, you pick the rules that you want to use (perhaps starting with the glass which will be used for Georgian products), subdividing and sorting if necessary (maybe crossed bars first, then single bars), then sequencing more jobs using further rules.
Rules can be very simple, based on product codes or tags, or more complex, using all kinds of criteria such as the size and shape of the glass.
Keeping you in control of production
One of the huge advantages of using configurable rules for production scheduling is that you can see exactly what the system is doing and why. You can see what each rule does and decide whether a specific rule is what you need, or whether you need to create something new.
These rules are used in all aspects of production scheduling, including cutting and furnace optimisation. Gtrak’s reporting tools and dashboards can also draw on these rules, so you maintain control and visibility.
Some Gtrak customers appreciate our help getting started, while most successfully manage their entire rulesets in-house.
Ready to get smarter with your batch scheduling?
Gtrak is a highly regarded software system that is used by glass companies around the world, from market leaders to local family businesses.
Batch scheduling is just one part of its rich functionality, which is helping businesses like yours to drive efficiency gains, support new innovations and ensure you can always deliver on time, in full.
If you would like to find out more or schedule a demo to see Gtrak and its rule-based production scheduling, please get in touch or call me on +44 1386 793415.
