Production planning and control software

Production Planning and Control (PPC)

ERP Production Planning and Control

Production planning and control (or PPC) is defined as a work process which seeks to allocate human resources, raw materials, and equipment/machines in a way that optimizes efficiency. In layman's terms, PPC helps manufacturers work smarter in allocating internal resources of people, materials, and machines in order to meet the demands of customers.

With ever-shorter lead times and increasing price pressure, the challenges of make-to-order manufacturing and complex variant management are loud and clear. To compete, mid-sized companies must optimize their production processes. That's why ERP production planning and control (PPC) is at the heart of the abas ERP system for modern production companies. It enables efficiency, coordination, and the leveraging of production-related data to drive improvement.

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Efficiency through automation

With abas ERP, your entire order management system is on the screen. With one click, you can convert automatically-generated production proposals into work orders and, by approving them, trigger job tickets, route cards, picking lists and an availability check. The capacity plan provides a complete overview of machine utilization, bottlenecks and backlogs, and, when work steps are shifted, immediately takes into account the impact on material requirements planning or MRP. Conflicts are identified at an early stage and you can be proactive instead of reactive.

Production under control

Since medium-sized suppliers are becoming increasingly involved in their customers' product development, the subject of Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) is gaining importance. The development and production of complex products at different sites with a large number of people involved requires significant coordination and collaboration. A central database, as provided by abas ERP, ensures that your team has access to the latest CAD data, drawings and specifications at all times. You can trace the version history seamlessly over many years to check what was developed or changed and when. No confusion or redundancy of effort here.

With abas ERP Production Planning & Control, your production processes become much more coordinated, collaborative, and streamlined, enabling you to increase value creation throughout production.

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Good prodcution planning starts with ERP

  • Central production planning control

    All the threads come together in the production center: Review work order suggestions and work orders, edit them directly, and trigger additional actions.

  • Identify bottlenecks

    With the abas capacity planning function, you can identify bottlenecks early on and take the appropriate action to optimize your production planning. This includes rescheduling sales orders or operations and reviewing the effect it will have in a table or graphical display. That's agility.

  • Mobile plant data collection

    The abas mobile cycle count app enables you to quickly and easily record plant data on the shop floor using tablets, mobile devices and hand-held scanners. You can gain visibility into all that's happening, when it's happening.

  • CAD/PDM integration

    With the CAD/PDM connector, abas offers a process-oriented system integration for nearly every CAD/PDM/PLM solution, facilitating the bidirectional exchange of development data and ERP data. This is what connection and coordination look like.

The abas Production app gives you the accuracy and flexibility your shop floor needs. With options for Plant Data Collection (PDC), time card entry, work order details, and issuing materials, you can mix and match the features and functions your business wants for a personalized experience. Workers can access the abas Production app from their personal devices or kiosks in your facility.

Production is the backbone of any manufacturing business. What makes abas ERP so great is that no matter what you are producing, abas can make your processes more efficient and flexible. abas ERP helps you manage the entirety of your production processes; from planning and work preparation all the way through completion confirmations.

With abas ERP, managing work orders has never been easier. With our simple and convenient dashboard, you can customize your work order management to suit your business needs. Quickly detect and resolve any bottlenecks or stocking issues. A graphical view into your work order status and plans is provided to help you easily manage your work orders.

abas ERP's integrated time recording/job time management system allows your employees to easily record labor data from anywhere. From terminals or mobile devices, employees can enter in their data which is automatically synced into your system. All the labor data is then made available for statistical analysis, capacity planning or financing.

abas ERP comes fully equipped with simple CAD integration. Through a CAD integration add-on, abas ERP can work with any leading CAD software suite. This allows easy workflow integration that doesn't limit the potential of your engineers. Once engineers have designed a product, they can transfer it to the ERP system with three simple clicks.

Why networked production doesn't work without a ERP Production Planning and Control System

To succeed in today's highly-competitive, fast-moving, and tech-enabled global business landscape, manufacturers must continuously optimize quality, control costs, and deliver efficiency. An ERP system gets you there.

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Selecting an ERP System in 7 Easy Steps

Production planning and the guide to selecting ERP in 7 easy steps

High stock levels must be avoided to reduce capital commitment. At the same time, customers demand high delivery reliability with short delivery times and an increasing choice of variants. This conflict requires the perfect planning of personnel and material resources, which abas ERP production planning enables. In-house programs or outdated software solutions reach their limits when managing increasingly large data volumes from a range of internal and external data sources. It's time to do better with ERP production planning, especially now when flexible mapping and management of increasingly complex production processes are required to do better. Add to that the challenge of "make-to-order" manufacturing, which requires a new definition of "optimal utilization."

Unforeseeable employee absences or machine downtimes, delivery difficulties when materials are required urgently or last-minute orders make everyday production planning even harder. Whether you perform make-to-order production, mass production or series production, streamlining your operations by using professional IT solutions for ERP production planning and control (PPC) can make a massive difference. Studies show that production companies that use the right software solutions stay ahead of the competition. In comparison with competitors, they are up to ten percent better off when it comes to reducing production costs, increasing the net profit margin and ensuring delivery reliability. ERP makes that difference, allowing you to see and respond to what's happening in your operations.

Production planning, in close collaboration with sales planning, defines which products can be produced in which quantities at which times – with a planning horizon of between 6 months and 2 years, depending on the industry. The production plan is used as the basis for capacity planning and purchasing. The aim of material control is to provide the right quantity in the right quality at the right place and at the right time. The close link between suppliers and external manufacturers (supply chain management) forms the basis for a competitive value creation chain, and connecting all departments and partners involved via a fully integrated ERP Production Planning system is therefore essential for success. With optimal capacity planning, orders are processed effectively and machine idle times are avoided. To achieve this, order, warehouse and HR data must be merged effectively. Current data from the production data acquisition system (PDA) is therefore included in the calculation of lead times - from HR data to order data and machine data. The entire production order management process is also automated, from printing route cards and stock requisition cards to confirming order times.

Increasingly short innovation cycles require efficient documentation and management of product data and product changes. Modern ERP solutions offer the possibility of integrating the entire product life cycle into production planning and control, either through the integration of CAD programs or through the integration of PLM or PDM systems. The efficiency of product development is therefore improved through central management of design data, thus control is optimized across all processes in the product life cycle. Think of it as a symphony working in harmony, with different players working in tandem to produce beautiful music. And think of abas ERP as the conductor monitoring the quality and ensuring that everyone is playing from the same musical score.

Abas production planning apps enable increased cross-platform flexibility, allowing for a seamless experience across iOS, Android and Windows devices. In addition, offline mode ensures production continues despite outages in internet. Full ERP integration empowers teams with a master database to avoid common mistakes, and the ability to bring your own device makes implementation of production planning software easier.

Using the abas Production app gives your team the tools to succeed, including:

  • Completion functions streamline input to help workers log activities and determine total yield. Managers leverage this function to gain an immediate view of work performed, assign completion times, link activities to work orders and manage labor costs.
  • Effective labor management is only as good as the system of record for attendance, and attendance functions within the app allow floor workers to clock in and out. Simple interfaces also reduce the stress of handling timekeeping.
  • Plant data collection (PDC) within the production planning app offers a detailed view of labor functions and costs. In today's age, data is power, and using app-generated data enhances planning throughout your organization.
  • The fourth and most impressive function in the app is Issue Material. This function gives managers a means to move materials, select raw materials and use entry screens to issue raw materials to certain tasks. The system also serves to manage inventory in the warehouse. Intuitive controls streamline production and recommend raw material locations to be used first that will fulfill work orders at the lowest costs. Raw materials are marked as delivered after issuing them within the app.

The Big Picture of Production Planning

Real value exists within abas ERP and production planning software. Each feature is designed to maximize efficiency and reduce risk throughout the entire manufacturing and distribution process. Find out how your organization can grow with abas ERP today by calling 703-444-2500 or submitting your query to [email protected].

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