Production management

The schedule is a promise made to a customer using capacity you do not fully control. Most plants that miss dates are not short of machine hours. They are running a sequence that maximizes utilization on each machine and no one is accountable for the order.

Sequence is the decision, not the loading

Loading answers how much work a resource has. Sequence answers what the customer gets and when, and it is the part usually left to whoever is standing at the machine.

Two sequences with identical total hours produce very different outcomes:

• Grouped by setup — run everything in the same color, material or die together. Maximizes machine output, and pushes any order that does not fit the current group to the back.
• Grouped by due date — run what is owed soonest. Protects dates, and pays for it in changeovers.