Work and machine centers are an essential part of the manufacturing process as they allow for the efficient production of parts and components. By using work and machine centers, manufacturers can improve the efficiency and quality of their products while also reducing costs.

Even the smallest and simplest manufacturing companies can face challenges when scheduling work at machine centers. For example, changes in customer demand, changes in the production process, changes in the availability of raw materials, changes in the availability of labor, and equipment breakdowns.

Manually managing production schedules takes skilled people who understand all the process variables. Even then, scheduling can be a painstaking process making it difficult to quickly pivot plans when things change. Without viable options, businesses are often at the mercy of staff with tribal knowledge to create schedules that generate a profit.

While advanced planning and scheduling software has been around for a long time, it has typically only been accessible by large manufacturers as the cost to procure, implement and maintain has made it prohibitive for small and medium-sized shops… until now.

An Affordable and Attractive Solution for Job Shop and Manufacturers

MxAPS from Insight Works is an advanced finite scheduling app that transforms production planning and scheduling from an inaccurate and time-consuming task into a responsive, repeatable, and highly accurate decision support activity. Perfect for job shops and machine shops with difficulty creating schedules due to high product variability and twisted production flow.

Work centers contain machine centers. A machine center can be a packing table, paint booth, milling machine, or another resource used within your manufacturing process. Both work centers and machine centers are configured to constrain capacity.

MxAPS knows your equipment and machine centers. MxAPS will automatically select the most suitable machine to use when choosing a machine during the scheduling process. For example, if you have a work center with four different machines, all you have to do is schedule your work at that work center, and MxAPS will choose the most appropriate machine for the job.

MxAPS will adapt if a specific machine or work center is unavailable. For example, MxAPS may recommend a task be subcontracted, and while this may not be ideal, subcontracting may be preferred over missing a deadline.

So, if you want to regularly create realistic production schedules without relying on people to understand all the scheduling details, then you’ll want to look at MxAPS from Insight Works. An affordable and effective advanced planning and scheduling tool designed specifically for smaller job shops and machine shops.

To learn more about managing work and machine centers, check out the following video or visit http://JobShopAPS.com.