KnarrTek Materials Planning and Job Scheduling Solutions

KnarrTek's BellHawk Materials Tracking Software includes dynamic materials planning and operations scheduling capabilities, which are especially suitable for manufacturers and distributors that deliver semi-custom products with shipment in a short time period.

The materials requirements planning (MRP)and operational scheduling are based on make-to-stock algorithms, where the quantity of products to be made, and materials to be ordered, are based on a sales forecast for the next several months.

This works well for manufacturers making long-runs of a few products, where materials and operations can be planned months in advance. But most small and mid-sized manufacturers in the USA typically make semi-custom products with just a few days to make and ship each individual custom order. For this reason, the MRP systems embedded in ERP systems fail to provide meaningful materials purchasing or production scheduling orders.

The materials planning algorithm embedded in BellHawk is designed to support make-to-order manufacturers.

BellHawk dynamically tracks projected inventory levels based on materials in stock, plus those due to arrive or be made, less materials due to be consumed on jobs and shipments.

When a new customer order arrives, a materials planner can run this algorithm interactively, as a decision support system, to dynamically create purchase orders and manufacturing orders based on each customer order, as it arrives.

Operations on jobs are then dynamically scheduled, as each production worker finishes their last job/operation,  based on how far ahead or behind schedule the orders are and the availability of material to ensure, as far as is possible, that customer orders get shipped on time.

This enables make-to-order manufacturers, industrial distributors doing secondary operations, repair and construction organizations to plan and schedule their operations without expensive scheduling and planning meetings or attempting to do materials planning using Excel spreadsheets. It also helps prevent mistakes by not ordering needed materials or keeping excess inventory on hand.

The planning and scheduling algorithms are designed to be easily customized to meet the individual needs of each organization to minimize the amount of time and effort by managers and their staff in these activities.

If you are having issues with planning and scheduling your operations, please click on the [Contact Us] button below to arrange a no-obligation on line meeting with one of our experts.