production planning software, small manufacture

Hello to the room!

My name is Anna and not long time ago I started working with a production planning and management software. I am mainly responsible for finding out how could we help small manufacturers, what are their problems and concers regarding production planning, inventory, work time, etc. All the time we are trying to improve our software.

We work with different industries, but cnc machinig, molding, precision engineering are top ones.


So, if you wish to share your production planning, calculation and management concerns, please comment. Hopefuly I'll be able to help with an Excel spreadsheet, or some other suitable solution.

I am not selling anything, rather looking for feedback and mutual learning (I am getting a hang of this industry).

Regards ;-)

PS.

As wanting to start on the good note, check out the pic taken during my training in one of the cnc maching companies-- guys really had a nice idea how to make work more fun ;-)

Anna Starkey said:

Hello to the room!

My name is Anna and not long time ago I started working with a production planning and management software. I am mainly responsible for finding out how could we help small manufacturers, what are their problems and concers regarding production planning, inventory, work time, etc. All the time we are trying to improve our software.

We work with different industries, but cnc machinig, molding, precision engineering are top ones.


So, if you wish to share your production planning, calculation and management concerns, please comment. Hopefuly I'll be able to help with an Excel spreadsheet, or some other suitable solution.

I am not selling anything, rather looking for feedback and mutual learning (I am getting a hang of this industry).

Regards ;-)

PS.

As wanting to start on the good note, check out the pic taken during my training in one of the cnc maching companies-- guys really had a nice idea how to make work more fun ;-)View attachment 279859

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To be honest the gap and inefficiency I'm seeing / wondering / worrying about is that it does not seem that many small companies and startups are Designing for the Robots.

This is more of an up front design issue i.e. three dimensional design issues for new products that don't take into account what robots/ automation systems are good at and what they are bad at.

Smaller shops that get into 5 axis and other CNC based automation strategies (at least for their own products , not job shop) think of 'Automation" i.e. the robot arm, or Drawer system or the palette system as an add-on or "After thought".

Not many small companies follow through to automation and very few design their products up front to be manufactured using "Robots".

I'm not sure these types of up front process / design issues can be handled with a 2d spread sheet ?

The possible inefficiency I see is that a small manufacturer will have a separate prototype area and development and then later buy more machines for "Production" and then even later try to figure out how to automate that all much later...

Seems that new designs and new products should designed with the "Robot" in mind first (up front) to be actually efficient ? That's a design issue IMO. I.e. Design for Robots not just pay lip service to "Design for Manufacturing " ? (maybe) ???

cameraman said:

To be honest the gap and inefficiency I'm seeing / wondering / worrying about is that it does not seem that many small companies and startups are Designing for the Robots

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Heck, most companies seem to treat designing for manufacturability as an afterthought. They can get some prototypes 3D printed, it works, shift it to production. What do you mean you can't produce that economically?

mhajicek said:

Heck, most companies seem to treat designing for manufacturability as an afterthought. They can get some prototypes 3D printed, it works, shift it to production. What do you mean you can't produce that economically?

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Yeah ,

As principally as a designer I know that many many things that perform the same function and "Look" can be designed a hundred different ways. Having the actual design constraints be design all they way through to automation systems up front for the machines you can likely afford and scale with, seems to make some sense to me ?

So it is multidimensional problem of design (one critical dimension of time and sequencing), planning, in a sense actual production design AND if you are a small business then under "Capitalism" you have to scale... You have to design for that too.

So the little arm-waving-gripery-thing next to the expensive machine suddenly become way more important (relatively speaking).

If you can't scale and can't automate or at least work quickly to standardization for a complete and contiguous process one is going to go extinct or at least have your asses handed to you by the Far East (at least that is what we are told almost non-stop).


^^^ I'm not in Automotive and initially was prepared to hate this video initially, but the consultant / analysts / panelists Laurie Harbour, Gary Vasilash, John McElroy * had some very cogent points about why they think there are "Troubles Ahead for The U.S. Tool & Die Industry "

I found it quite startling ~ Basic damage caused by lack of up front production design and standardization that they seem to feel is going too cause a lot of tool and die shops in the USA to close ?

At the same time it's hard to escape the issue of IF you want to automate then you have to get rid of as many 'Human -beings" in your organization or "processes" as possible ? (at least that's what automation implies , not that I believe that human beings should "Be" robots and vice versa).


And yet "Peeps" are not really designing up front for automation systems at whatever scale or budget ? + it seems some MTBs/ vendors want you to take the most expensive and circuitous route possible for scaling ? (in some instances).

Right now one has to divide production processes between what humans are best at versus robots. That's another factor for Op's spread sheet and how that balance will change progressively over the future ~ coming at you real fast 5, to 7 years a lot can happen.
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* No affiliation.

Anna Starkey said:

I am not selling anything, rather looking for feedback and mutual learning (I am getting a hang of this industry).

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I wonder whether you are indirectly looking for any help in preparing requirements document for your software. Did you survey commercial software tools (including shop management software) which are already available to job shops including machine shops for production planning and scheduling purpose?

We have software working, thank you very much. We are operating in Poland and have customers, etc. but abroad we are a start up, hence willing to offer free usage of software as testing to make it better and more suitable. You can say: right but nobody gives away things for free. And you are right: feedback and reviews are priceless for us and worth this free period. I am not working in a big company offering expensive ERP, but rather tagerting small manufacturers (up to appx.100 employees). On top of that we have some free to use spreadshhets, and generally work on the basics that we are for people not for profit. Hopefully I answered you question, and still will be glad to offer any assistance. :-)