Excel versus Advanced Planning and Scheduling (APS) Software

The use of Excel spreadsheets for production planning and scheduling is common within the manufacturing environment. Excel is a great tool that is very flexible and can be seen as a quick and easy option when it comes to production scheduling. Advanced Planning and Scheduling software can sometimes be seen as overkill but when implemented, can offer significant benefits over traditional production scheduling methods.

A production plan in Excel can be huge with thousands of rows and complex calculations. Producing and updating the document is often time consuming and open to errors.

Spreadsheets can’t easily represent equipment, labour, materials constraints and when there are changes, what the effect on these constraints will be.

An Excel production plan spreadsheet usually has been developed over years and may no longer be fit for purpose. Businesses change and systems need to evolve with them.

Typically, businesses are forced to rely on an individual and their expertise of the spreadsheet. What happens when that person is not available, if they are on sick leave or want to further their career? Risks can often include delays to production and a negative impact on your business operations.

With advanced planning and scheduling software, you can cut planning time down from days or hours to as little as minutes.

Production planning software provides one version of the truth, a real-time production plan which includes all tasks, dependencies and constraints. Not only is equipment, labour and materials information part of the planning process, but satellite activities such as preventative maintenance, quality control and buffers and media planning are included also.

With manufacturing scheduling software, intuitive ‘drag and drop’ functionality allows changes to be made quickly, updating all activities automatically.

Modelling different production scenarios is easy and can be done in a matter of hours – in Excel it could take three or four days.

Better resource planning delivers greater efficiency from improved equipment and labour utilisation. APS software frees your planners to focus value added work such as identifying issues before they occur: bottlenecks, resource under / over utilisation, 'what-if' analysis for example.

Advanced functionality in production scheduling software, including forwards and backwards scheduling, also helps to reduce Work In Progress (WIP). Materials can be scheduled as and when required, reducing stock and improving cashflow.

Good communication is key to efficient operations. One negative that stands out for Excel is version control. There are no guarantees that everyone is working from the latest version of a production spreadsheet. This could lead to wasted time and resources, miscommunication, and confusion between teams.

One consequence of this would be less than smooth changeovers between shifts. Another example, provided by one of our customers, is of engineers turning up for planned maintenance, only to learn that the schedule has changed and they are unable to access the room or equipment.

With advanced planning and scheduling software, you know that everyone is working from one central live plan, visible to the right people at the right time. Updates are shown immediately, and all teams understand what’s required and when, reducing downtime between shifts for batch handover.

APS software allows you to produce plans which are accurate to the minute. From a customer communication perspective, it means that you can provide dates and timescales to customers with the confidence that they will be met.

Your customers will be happier regardless – with production planning software, accurate scheduling means shorter lead times based on actual capacity rather than generic lead times.

Without the ability to easily take constraints and dependencies into consideration, Excel spreadsheets can only provide a high-level view of production and they don’t reflect reality on the shopfloor. Production plans are based on assumptions.

If you can’t easily understand resource utilisation, you can’t understand true capacity. What does this translate to for your business? It could mean missed revenue opportunities from not producing additional batches or turning down work.

Using APS systems, you can increase manufacturing capacity by understanding resource over- or under-utilisation in detail. You can identify how to expand production capacity whilst using the same resources. A faster throughput allows you to take on more profitable work for example.

Modelling these scenarios in Excel is not only significantly time consuming but once done, these models could quickly be out of date and inaccurate.

Advanced planning and scheduling software provides an accurate, holistic view of production. What if analysis can be used to explore multiple scenarios including capital investment justification, shift pattern and resourcing analysis. Business leaders have the data they need develop plans for the future direction of their business and growth.

At one time, Excel spreadsheets met a need for teams looking to move to electronic production plans. However, technology has evolved significantly over the years and with the fast pace of change in manufacturing and ever complex production processes, dedicated Advanced Planning and Scheduling solutions are now available that have been designed specifically for this purpose.