IMPACTS Cloud Intelligent Dynamic Scheduling

Synchronized planning of material and capacity requirements; planning the recommended material arrival time based on the shop floor production line’ material requirement usage to ensure that the production line will not stop due to lack of material.

• The material shortage table and material catch-up table are automatically generated.
• Material usage time planning may generate the schedule for picking and preparing materials.

The backward scheduling approach based on the customer order/manufacturing order (MO) due date is applied to obtain each MO's latest release date. It can solve the problem of early releasing MO and effectively reduce material costs.

• Avoid early releasing MO and reduce material inventory costs.
• Implement JIT (Just in time) production model.

Backward planning the latest releasing time of the parent MO from the customer order due date, and schedule the latest manufacturing parts’ operation start time based on the same logic, to effectively reduce the quantity and waiting for time shop floor work in progress (WIP).

• Solve the problem of early on-site completed parts and purchased parts waiting for all components ready for assembly and reduce the WIP waiting time.

Log in to the IMPACTs system via a mobile device such as a mobile phone or tablet to display the detailed information of the MO currently assigned to this account and the MO operation sequence to be processed next.

• Replace shop floor paperwork MO dispatching approach to a timely system base.
• Facilitate dynamic adjustment of MO production schedule in response to external environment changes (e.g., rush order, cancel/change of customer orders).

Shop floor operators can use a mobile device such as a cell phone or tablet PC to log in to the IMPACTs system and report MO production status directly or use a mobile device to scan the paperwork based operation instruction sheet to feedback the work progress.

• Replacing a paper-based reporting approach to a real-time system approach.
• Visualizing the shop floor production status even without hardware installed.

According to the resource line-changing logic and change time, the IMPACTs system can generate effective line change schedules by considering shop floor production conditions.

• Reasonably plan the number and timing of line changes to avoid redundant line changes.
• Reduce production loss caused by line changes.

The purpose of batching production is to put MOs with similar or the same production restrictions together to process simultaneously. For example, the batches that need the same baking time or temperature can be grouped for processing in the baking process.

• Effectively increase the output of a batch.
• The batch scheduling can effectively solve how many MOs and how long they need to wait for batching several MOs.

IMPACTs may generate mold assignment schedule according to the molds required by the product and the available mold resources. The molds are assigned in detail when and on which machine to mold.

• Effectively solve the assignment problem of multiple types of equipment, sharing a small limited amount of molds.
• Avoid multiple equipment resources that require a mold simultaneously.

According to the designated personnel's needs to change the mold, plan the mold changer's work schedule, to avoid the situation of lack of mold changers when the mold needs to be changed.

• Avoid stopping the line due to lack of mold changers.
• The exact work schedule for mold changers.

To meet the designated personnel operating the specific equipment' requirements, IMPACTs may plan equipment operators' work schedules. Therefore, one operator may be responsible for several machines simultaneously.

• Effectively solve the one-person, multi-machines allocation problem.
• Improve the efficiency of operator-machine collaboration.

This module stores relevant data such as cutting tools, tool holders and collets, and the relationships of the products to be processed with them, and also records data such as cutting tool consumption and requisition.

• The detailed record of tool usage history is good for traceability.
• The tool dashboard can display tool inventory and historical consumption analysis.

This module stores relevant data such as molds and fixtures and the relationships of products that need to be processed with them and records the history of the use and receipt of molds and fixtures.

• A detailed record of mold and fixture related usage can facilitate the traceability of mold and fixtures.
• The dashboard can display historical consumption and maintenance analysis.

This module stores relevant information about production resources and spare parts other than molds, jigs, and tools, and the relationships of products that need to be processed, and records the history of their use and acquisition.

• A detailed record of resource parts related usage can facilitate the traceability of parts.
• Resource parts dashboard can display inventory and historical consumption analysis.

Resource equipment repair and maintenance order assignment, repair work can be assigned to different operators according to different needs.

• Quickly assign maintenance tasks and their operators, and record maintenance information.
• The maintenance dashboard can display maintenance events and historical analysis.

Use the remaining inventory of tools or other resource parts to predict when it will be exhausted, and schedule to issue a suggested purchase notice before exhaustion.

• Avoid that when the life of the tool or other resource parts is exhausted, no subsequent materials can be used continuously and reduce the disconnection due to a lack of processing resources.

This module will generate a resource acquisition schedule based on the tool, mold, and other resource accessories data, after judging the relationships of the product, if it needs to be used for processing.

• On-site preparation of production resources to meet a MO’s operations schedule.
• Effectively reduce the number of materials in the on-site side warehouse.

According to the resources' remaining service lifetime, automatically generate maintenance orders and incorporate the maintenance orders into the production and operations schedule. Plan synchronously with the manufacturing orders (MOs), and use the remaining production time for maintenance.

• Reduce the probability of maintenance time occupying available production time.
• Automatically generate maintenance orders to avoid maintenance omissions.

According to the machines' historical failure data, the AI model will predict the latest maintenance time limit and generate the maintenance schedule before reaching the time limit.

• This maintenance schedule will have the least impact on the production line.
• Optimized maintenance schedule to reduce the impact on productivity.

Analyze the factors affecting maintenance and repair events, and find out the main reasons for frequent maintenance. For instance, AI model will schedule regular production before schedule a maintenance if a specific process is prone to damage to the equipment.

• Cause analysis of equipment failure.

Use historical equipment production data to train the machine learning model and use the AI model to estimate the equipment's remaining lifetime. AI model will schedule maintenance orders before failure occurs.

• Equipment failure period prediction.
• Reduce the risk of equipment capacity impact due to unexpected downtime.

According to the production line's capacity, try to calculate the production cycle time of different orders releasing time and quantity, and recommend the suitable release time and amount based on the order due date.

• According to the order due date, the AI model will recommend MO release time and quantity.
• The waiting time of work-in-process (WIP) on the production line is reduced effectively.

According to the demand plan, calculating whether resources need to be adjusted, increase equipment with insufficient capacity, reduce overcapacity, and simulating the utilization rate under different product portfolio scenarios.

• Maximize the capacity utilization of the production line according to the product mix.
• Fully utilize the bottleneck equipment’s capacity, and the non-bottleneck resources follow the production pace.

IMPACTs Combines the unutilized production capacity with the materials currently in stock to generate a suggested combination of production and sales products.

• Consume surplus capacity, convert materials into revenue.
• Increase production line throughput and product output with minimal cost.