The effective management of scarce resources is the oldest and most fundamental problem of economics. The reason is that while the world population is rapidly increasing, the world’s resources are depleting at the same rate. This inversely proportional development is tightening the ropes every passing day and forcing businesses to be more careful than ever when using their resources.
When Henry Ford first developed the mass production system in 1910, businesses did not have such concerns at that time. Because competition was extremely low, and the supply size was well below the demand size. This led businesses to mass production with plenty of stock, plenty of time, and plenty of consumption. The dramatic increase in energy prices along with the major global oil crisis required businesses to manage their costs more tightly. In addition to the increase in raw material and energy prices, preventing unwanted delays in production is another handicap for businesses in terms of market competition.
When all these variables come together, they reveal the two most basic needs of businesses: One of these is the ability to calculate production costs accurately, the other is the ability to monitor production constraints in the most effective way and to make real-time capacity planning in line with these constraints. These two basic needs have been issues that management information systems have been focusing on with sensitivity since the beginning.
The name of the module developed by IFS in this area is IFS CBS™ (Constraint Based Scheduling). IFS CBS, or Constraint Based Scheduling Module in Turkish , is a very powerful module that communicates with all supply chain processes of IFS ERP and wraps them around like a vine. In an IFS database where constraint-based scheduling is active, control is in the hands of CBS. Because CBS constantly listens to the database, monitors all movements in the supply processes and intervenes instantly. IFS CBS is a Gantt chart-supported module that works on its own server structure, semi-independently of the IFS database. Thanks to the bridge established in between, CBS is in constant communication with the database.
The main variables that constitute constraints in IFS ERP are production schedule, work center capacities, labor capacity, route times, operation tools and equipment, external supply times and material stock levels. In addition, the system perceives work centers out of service as a constraint due to maintenance operations. IFS Constraint Based Scheduling (CBS) Module has various algorithms that it uses when scheduling production orders. Some of these are backward scheduling, forward scheduling, first in first out scheduling, scheduling according to the need date . Dynamic scheduling can also be done within the module.
A company that has chosen IFS ERP Applications must discipline its own processes very well in order to use the IFS Constraint-Based Scheduling-Finite Capacity Planning (CBS) Module. Because when the company switches the work centers defined in the system to finite capacity, it is no longer possible to open work orders at levels exceeding the capacity in that work center. Therefore, opened work orders should be reported as soon as they are completed. Thus, a work center that is actually idle will also be idle in the system and it will be possible to load a new job to that work center. SIO Automotive, which has managed to achieve this discipline, now performs capacity management with IFS CBS. After SIO Automotive decided to use constraint-based scheduling-finite capacity planning, the necessary training was given to the employees who would use the module in the studies that started. Then, the work centers to be switched to scheduling were determined. Then, the most difficult part of the process, the synchronization part, started. In other words, the process of ensuring that the work orders opened in the system can be produced in accordance with the planned start dates seen in the system. As a result, SIO Automotive has successfully completed this challenging process and has been able to use IFS CBS.
In IFS ERP implementations, GIS installation is the last stage and the final goal to be achieved. A business that uses or will use IFS needs to discipline its own processes very well in order to use constraint-based scheduling-Finite capacity planning, as mentioned above. When the system in the computer and the system running in real life are synchronized, it is time for that business to use IFS GIS.
Source: www.ifsworld.com
