Job shop scheduling software for make to order work
In a job shop, no two weeks look the same. Every order has its own routing, its own quantities and its own promised date, and all of them compete for the same few machines. That is exactly the case a spreadsheet handles worst and a finite capacity scheduler handles best.
Why job shop planning is hard
- Every job has a different path through the shop
- Small batches mean many setups for little run time
- New orders and rush jobs arrive every day
- Quotes need a delivery date before the job is even won
- One busy machine delays jobs that only touch it once
A flow line can live with a fixed sequence. A job shop needs the sequence recalculated every time something changes, and that happens several times a day.
Job shop planning software that schedules every routing
ProductionPlanning.ai schedules each job through its own routing, operation by operation, on machines with finite capacity. When a new job arrives, you add it and run the schedule again: every job's finish date updates, and the ones pushed late appear on the list.
- A routing per job or per product, reused when the part repeats
- Finite capacity on every machine and work cell
- Setup time per machine, counted wherever the part changes
- Alternative machines for operations more than one machine can do
- Rush jobs by customer priority without losing sight of the rest
Quote delivery dates from the real schedule
Before you commit to a date, add the job as a draft and run the schedule. On the Plant plan and above, keep it in a separate plan version. You see when it would finish and which existing jobs it would push, and you quote from that instead of from a guess. If the date does not work, try an extra shift or an alternative machine and run it again.
What the best job shop software needs to do
- Handle one off and repeat work in the same schedule
- Show the true bottleneck this week, which in a job shop moves
- Reschedule in minutes when a machine goes down
- Give operators a clear queue, not the whole plan (Plant plan and above)
- Stay usable without a planning department
See how this works for a CNC machine shop and for metal fabrication, or read about machine scheduling software.
See your job shop's week before it happens
Run the demo on the machine shop, add a rush job, and see what moves.
Your data stays yours. Export or delete it any time. No card to try the demo.