Metal fabrication software that schedules cutting, bending, welding and paint
A fabrication shop lives on flow between very different processes: laser or plasma cutting, press brakes, welding bays, finishing and paint. Each one runs at its own pace, and one queue backing up stalls everything behind it. ProductionPlanning.ai schedules every step with finite capacity, so you see where the week will jam before it does.
Why metal fab scheduling breaks in a spreadsheet
- Every job has a different mix of cutting, bending and welding time
- Welding is often the bottleneck, and it depends on people, not machines
- Paint and powder coat run in batches by colour
- Material thickness and grade drive setups on the laser and the brake
- Customers ask for dates at quote stage, before the job is won
Metal fab software built around your work centers
- Work centers for each laser, plasma table, press brake, welding bay, paint line and assembly area
- Routings per job with minutes per part at each step
- Welding capacity from people on shift, not just bays
- Colour changeovers on the paint line, with grouping by colour (Plant plan)
- Material and thickness changeovers on cutting and bending
- Sheet and profile shortages listed per job and date (Plant plan and above)
The demo on the home page has a fabrication shop ready to load, with cutting, bending, welding and paint.
Sheet metal fabrication software for short runs and repeat parts
Sheet metal work mixes one off jobs with repeat parts for regular customers. Repeat parts reuse their routing, so a new order is scheduled as soon as it is entered, and a one off job needs only its steps and times. Both land in the same finite capacity schedule, and both get a real finish date. For more on make to order work, see job shop scheduling software.
Quote a date the shop floor can keep
Add a prospective job as a draft (in its own plan version on the Plant plan and above), run the schedule, and see when it would ship and what it would delay. Quote from that, not from a standard lead time that ignores this week's welding queue.
See this week's welding queue before Wednesday
Load the fabrication shop in the demo, or create your account and enter your open jobs.
Your data stays yours. Export or delete it any time. No card to try the demo.