Approximately 66% of manufacturing downtime is associated with process inefficiencies. While a lot of these inefficiencies might have myriad root causes, production schedulers often feel the brunt of the pressure to perform. After all, they’re the ones building and maintaining the production schedules, responding to demand shifts, and working to reduce equipment downtime. They’re responsible for taking the output of the larger production plan and translating it into a detailed, minute-by-minute schedule for the factory floor.
More supply chain leaders see an opportunity for automation to address scheduling challenges. But when you force automation on a particular step in the production process without addressing the underlying issues, even the most advanced automation tools won’t get you very far.
So what can supply chain leaders and production schedulers do?
In my view, automation offers a meaningful path forward to reduce losses from human, machine, and material disruption, elevate the role of the scheduler, improve coordination with supply planners and the shop floor, and create more efficiency and build resilience. But to reap the benefits of automation, not only do organizations need the right tools, they also need the right level of organizational maturity.
In this article, I’ll address:
- Why schedulers often express resistance to automation
- How organizations can address those issues
- Why planning and scheduling must work as one
- What organizational maturity looks like and how organizations can start to level up
Disconnected systems and processes are the real obstacles holding schedulers back
Schedulers have a unique role that—in its current state—offers little time to step back and look ahead. The order book is never static. Capacity is a constantly shifting constraint because of fluctuations in demand and supply. They’re constantly in firefighting mode, which makes it hard to come up with what-if scenarios that could improve efficiency in the face of changing conditions.
Even if they’re using automation tools, they’re frustrated with the ones that exist and don’t trust the output of the algorithm. They’ve been stuck with drag-and-drop tools that struggle to incorporate multi-factorial inputs and constraint complexities. They spend hours every day updating the schedule in these tools. But when production downtime losses can amount to up to $1 million per year in some instances, there’s a lot at stake to keep production moving.
Sequential decision-making feels safe, but can limit influence
Schedulers and the tools they use lean on sequential decision-making, often with limited views of the whole process. They must coordinate with other schedulers to make sure there’s a consensus, and that one change to one area won’t have unintended consequences in other areas. If materials don’t arrive, or workers are absent, that disrupts assumptions and puts everything behind schedule, which means teams have to go back to the drawing board.
Planning and scheduling cannot operate through a sequential, one-way handoff.
Assumptions, BOM selections, routings, component allocations, and execution constraints must continuously synchronize in both directions to keep plans feasible and schedules executable.
Why planning and scheduling must work as one
In manufacturing, schedulers and planners face the frozen window: a window about two or three days when orders are sent in, and the shop floor is executing against the plan. Any disruption in this window has ripple effects. When a schedule is constantly changing, the shop floor will often reject that schedule and just do what’s convenient for them, rather than what might be optimal for the business.
When planning and scheduling are siloed, these types of disconnections get exacerbated. The planner is unhappy. The scheduler is unhappy. The people on the shop floor are unhappy. It’s a cycle that feels tough to break. But it’s not impossible.
When planning and scheduling work as one they can reduce firefighting, improve agility, and create schedules that remain executable even when conditions change. This results in more consistent operations and better business outcomes.
How a fast-moving consumer goods company unlocked the power of enterprise scheduling for improved agility
Reckitt is a multinational consumer goods company based in Slough, UK. Even though they’ve achieved success in the highly volatile market of fast-moving consumer goods, there was a disconnect between planners and production line scheduling. Weekly plans would effectively get “thrown over the wall” to schedulers, creating costly inefficiencies. But by integrating planning and enterprise scheduling with Kinaxis, Reckitt created a single system from demand signal to production line sequence. This created a shared environment where teams could align production schedules with supply plans, account for real-world constraints, simulate tradeoffs in real time, and respond faster to volatility.
As a result, Reckitt enhanced end-to-end visibility with complete oversight from demand signal to production line. Reduced changeover time enabled more efficient production transitions and minimized downtime between products. More stable and realistic schedules resulted in improved OEE and better alignment with demand to help optimize inventory and help build a more resilient supply chain for the future.
The mature scheduler is a strategic decision partner
When a scheduler in a mature planning and scheduling organization is empowered, they can move beyond fire-fighting mode and become a strategic decision partner. They can work closely with planners and speak up with data points like which KPIs will be impacted when changes must be accommodated. Maturity is less about manually rebuilding schedules and more about evaluating scenarios, communicating tradeoffs, and helping the business understand shop floor implications.
How Kinaxis helps you on your journey to scheduling maturity
Automation on disconnected systems can only exacerbate problems, which is why Kinaxis synchronizes planning and scheduling in a single environment. It’s not enough to have a strategy. It’s executing against that strategy that matters, which is what Kinaxis helps you do, improving responsiveness to disruption, and helping you make tradeoffs with a clear understanding of business impact.
Once scheduling and planning are aligned, Kinaxis automates the repetitive work that slows your teams down, helps you manage disruption with greater speed, confidence, and consistency, and frees you to focus on what matters most: improving performance and driving better business outcomes.