Meeting Customer Demands from Floor to Door – Using APS for Smart Scheduling

Whether you are feeling it in your workforce, your supply chains, or in price increases on imported material, most manufacturers have no choice but to ride the volatile wave that is the early Trump administration. Whether the waves you’re surfing are tariffs, trade negotiations, or immigration status, and whether they get better or worse in the months to come, you need a technique to ride them and not wipe out.

One way to stay on your board is to implement Advanced Planning and Scheduling (APS) for Smart Scheduling because it is designed for tumultuous times just like this. Smart scheduling, an advanced, technology-driven approach to planning and optimizing schedules (commonly used in manufacturing), uses real-time data, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and automation to dynamically create, adjust, and improve schedules based on forecasts, actual orders and priorities, machine and labor constraints,  and changing conditions. Conditions could not be more unpredictable or unstable now. But what needs to be? On-time delivery—a crucial element for maintaining customer satisfaction and competitive advantage. So, how can your business optimize floor to door production when the environment isn’t so optimal? One key strategy is to implement APS strategies to support Smart Scheduling so that you can make the most of every production process, pre-to-post.

Pre-Production & Production Strategies

(Demand Forecasting)
APS systems can predict future demand based on historical data, trends, and customer orders. Accurate forecasting ensures the manufacturer prepares for upcoming demand, avoiding both shortages and excess inventory. APS systems are also integrated with Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems to access data such as inventory levels, current orders, machine capacities, workforce availability, and more. This ensures a real-time, accurate reflection of the overall manufacturing environment required to schedule optimally.

(Order Prioritization)
APS can prioritize orders based on customer deadlines, order value, or other criteria, ensuring that high-priority orders are completed first, without disrupting the overall workflow. Your system can allow the manufacturer to set specific rules to prioritize certain orders, like urgent customer requests or orders with a higher profit margin. It also balances multiple constraints such as labor availability, equipment capacity, material delivery, and customer deadlines as part of Smart Scheduling.

(Optimization of Resources)
APS considers available resources (machines, labor, raw materials) and allocates them optimally. By calculating the most efficient use of resources, APS can avoid idle time, reduce labor and energy costs, and maximize throughput. The system can ensure that production schedules match the capacity of resources, thus avoiding worker or machine overloads and ensuring that each resource is utilized effectively.

(Lead Time Reduction & Just-In-Time (JIT) Manufacturing)
By optimizing workflows, minimizing waiting times, and improving the synchronization of processes, APS can reduce lead times, allowing manufacturers to respond more quickly to customer order changes or new orders and reduce inventory. It can also help in implementing JIT manufacturing by ensuring that materials and components are ordered and delivered exactly when needed, minimizing storage costs and reducing the risk of overstocking.

(Collaboration and Communication)
Pre-production, APS can link manufacturers with suppliers to improve procurement planning and manage supply chain logistics, ensuring materials are available when needed without overstocking. Supplier and PO collaboration is crucial to obtain real time information on inbound supply of materials that will drive production. And during production, Smart Scheduling provides visibility into schedules for different departments (e.g., production, procurement, logistics), fostering better communication and collaboration within the organization.

(Production Schedule Alignment)
APS systems align production schedules by intelligently coordinating materials, machines, labor, and demand using real-time data and optimization algorithms. APS will ensure production orders are scheduled in the best sequence to minimize downtime or machine changeovers to maximize throughput and on time deliveries. The goal is to produce the right quantity at the right time with minimal waste or delay. APS pulls data from multiple sources such as ERP systems, MES systems, and SCADA/IoT sensors, to ensure the schedule is based on the actual current state, not static assumptions. Also, if there is a disruption (e.g., machine failure, rush order, material delay), APS re-evaluates all jobs, re-sequences or shifts tasks, and adjusts deadlines or resource allocations. This dynamic rescheduling maintains alignment with current conditions.

Post-Production

(Enhanced Customer Satisfaction)
Smart scheduling optimizes production and resource allocation, reducing delays and increasing the likelihood of On-Time-In-Full (OTIF) deliveries, one of the top factors influencing customer satisfaction. APS can sequence production to minimize switching times or avoid bottlenecks (remember Eli Goldratt’s Herbie) that might lead to rushed or lower-quality outputs, ensuring consistent product quality.

Also, with better scheduling, companies can more easily accommodate custom orders or last-minute changes without disrupting overall operations, offering a more personalized experience. Finally, APS allows for quicker and more informed responses to customer queries about order status, lead times, or changes, reducing frustration and increasing confidence.

(Continuous Improvement)
It’s not only important to monitor the success of your production process, but it is also important to evaluate the satisfaction of your customers once they have received your product. Your APS system can track performance metrics (e.g., on-time delivery, overall equipment effectiveness (OEE), order completion rate) and provide feedback that helps in fine-tuning the production process. And over time, APS can “learn” from previous production runs, adjusting its scheduling algorithms to continually improve production efficiency and responsiveness.

With APS and Smart Scheduling, there is no reason to manually waste time making changes to your production processes to accommodate an ever-changing industry environment. It can be hard to give over your surfboard to an automated system, but as you see your customers gain confidence in your ability to deliver ATP or CTP dates at time of order entry, no matter the production obstacles, perhaps you can relax and catch some real waves.  Or maybe just surf the internet.