Monthly Archives: February 2016

infoBoard und Value Streams analyses

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Huh, what does that have to do with an electronic planning board then?

Well… Poorly utilised time, idle times and waiting times are defined as ‘waste‘. You may, therefore, want to consider your business processes to identify and eliminate this wastage by redesigning your workflow into better processes. And that works best with infoBoard’s sample order system. A small business operations function is ‘create sample order from planning object group’.

Now, however, we would like to identify the entire business process chain through several independent units. Conflicts between departments resulting from moving appointments are pointed out and finally corrected.

In a BusinessController application, detailed tasks from several planning boards are combined ino individual blocks. When given buffer times are exceeded, the overlap time is visually depicted as a problem. They also prompt the sending of an automated email notification.

It is possible to quantify the effect of delays with the agreed value stream. For example, one day of short-term delays costs 15 000 EUR, whereas one day of long-term delays costs xxx EUR. The delays are no longer considered as ‘normal’ but rather as ‘subject to change’.

Workshop orders with infoBoard’s ‘Pool Order’ form

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Scenario: Internal service providers within the company (eg. a workshop) receives orders through various different methods, such as by email, telephone, on-call responses or from SAP systems. Often, the orders would be expected to meet minimum requirements, and a performance record or even an SAP number may later be required.

According to increasing numbers of requests from customers, we have created a form creator. From this standard template, forms can be created: one form for each planning board. There are approximately 40 input fields available for transfer. Tooltip text is available, as is the enforcement of ‘mandatory fields’.

If a form field is used to access the user log, the customer can see the list of all of their orders when they call up the infoBoard Web system. A filter can also be used to make the list shorter.

A traffic-light system indicates the status of the job. Red is not yet scheduled, yellow is a scheduled date, and green – finished.

These entries can be printed by the workshop in the standard way using individual plugins.

The infoBoard user-defined attributes, value tables and type definitions are implemented.

Easily import Excel files into infoBoard

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In the “Handbook for Software Entrepreneurs”, the connectivity of a software product is paramount when bringing it to the global market.

Therefore, using the infoBoard synchronisation server, we have offered synchronisation from ERP data from day one. Here, we were looking at simplicity and comprehensibility, but also had to offer the full range of import possibilities. This makes it difficult. As a result, we send typical import data to interested parties as Excel files. With the infoBoard converter, we can offer to automatically read data from .csv files without ERP programs.

But on a basic level, most planners work with self-made Excel spreadsheets, lists, and matrices, both with and without macros. It’s amazing how much time is invested in planning. There is no other way to keep track of an order’s status in a comprehensible manner.

With so many different Excel spreadsheets used for planning, the focus is suddenly not on increased connectivity with ERP-Systems, but rather on managing a large number of Excel spreadsheets. This is a serious task for the software producer.

Over the past twelve months, our developers have done more than ever before with regards to Excel modules, add-ins, and uploads over web pages. This proves another aspect of the simplicity of working with infoBoard – easing the workload of the user.

Every month, we import around thirty new Excel “Example 5” spreadsheets for prospective customers and take screenshots of the generated planning boards. We offer these easy Excel imports to our prospective Internet customers almost immediately. Surprisingly, multi-dimensional thinking, and respectively the presentation of tasks in a two-dimensional manner seems to be difficult for a significant number of people. This is accompanied by an inability to imagine the necessary structures of an Excel spreadsheet in an abstract way.

We have programmed an Excel add-in, which is able to import (and remove) data from an Excel sheet to an existing infoBoard planning board. Here, the parts lists are copied from a CAD program and then the work is distributed to machines with an estimated time.

A great variant is an Excel plugin for the infoBoard client. In the sample orders, all items with the necessary work procedures are stored. The (weekly) production log is exported from SAP to Excel. This Excel file with the item numbers and the number of pieces produced is read by the plugin and automatically creates the item sample orders with SAP production order numbers.

Do you see the advantages that the idea of an ideal, automated interface presents? Simple Excel imports are like “Bread for the World”. They satisfy hunger.

We look forward to receiving your Excel spreadsheets.

Why is infoBoard better?

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In a typically American way, the usual questions is asked after two sentences here. We are in Chicago at the biggest trade show for manufacturing and are trying to be cool. The usual “how are you?” always slows me down. After four days, I answer “I am good”. Modesty is not a virtue here: let me tell you quite clearly, why you should be interested in Europe’s number one professional scheduling and capacity-planning tool.

Because infoBoard has spoken to over 20,000 respondents responsible for professional planning and has satisfied their needs by programming over 6,000 innovative solutions to problems. Because we have not looked away anywhere, making it a unique tool to have.. Because the interface is easy to understand and navigate and because, as well as looking beautiful, we are the only company to offer our second USP: the Critical Chain Project Management (CCPM) tool.

Oh yes, that is what I thought when I looked at the monitor! Easy!

After that has been explained, I now show our SmartWatch application and the two visitors are dreaming with us. Their enthusiasm is a reward for our many years of effort and, for a moment, America is giving something back to Old Europe.

Another visitor thinks that an integrator of engine data in the South Hall would also have an intelligent system. But he brought that from Germany twenty years ago. Oh! The arguments with the algorithm – the algorithm that can calculate and place everything perfectly. Not marketable! “Please talk to the people responsible for scheduling. Over 10 years, only 2 out of 20,000 wanted a completely automated planning system.” – all from from touch of a button. The other 19,998 wanted software that supported their thinking, allowing them to plan as they like, quickly and easily. That is the way it is.

I receive an email from an employee working at a US automotive supplier operating globally. The company is involved in re-manufacturing and is an OEM supplier of brakes and axles. His colleague would have taken a prospectus from the show, and they want to introduce a SCADA system with around six million operations a year at this location and further expansion planned at other locations. Can we arrange a demo “early next week”? Of course! But this is where cultures clash. I would like to prepare well for the appointment, whereas he would like to have it come to him. Instead of a concise, structured Excel table, he sends me prose. With my American ‘neighbour’ at the stand next to me, I analyse the text, extract the relevant information and build a five-columned Excel spreadsheet myself. Imported into infoBoard, made screenshots of the planning board, used the web reporting tools and evaluated the processes using BusinessController. Deadline for the demo: next Monday at 10am EST. Just how I need it. Concrete. Results oriented.

After the exhibition, we take the rented bicycles along the waterfront of Michigan Lake to the city, turn off the Chicago River into the city centre. We find a nice steak restaurant with a view overlooking the river. The sun still offers warmth and the strong winds cool our backs (yes, Chicago: The Windy City). The $80 listed turns into an unbelievable $150 – and not only because of tax and 15% service charges. Who can actually afford that? We live in Germany in a very different system! Not as much net cash but cheaper living costs.

infoBoard and Material Planning

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The infoBoard planning board improves the achievement of objectives in the magic square of production.

The Magic Square of Production includes: short cycle times, adherence to schedules, a high workload capacity and low stock levels.

The target of low stock levels seemed to play no role at all in infoBoard’s first ten years. Warehouse administration programs should take care of that.

But on another level, thanks to the “just in time” idea that has finally been fully implemented, material availability is suddenly a hot topic for infoBoard.

We have, for example, recently been able to help companies with a strong dependence on material availability. Because the material for a ship’s turbochargers has to be put in the oven in time for chemical immersion, the carbon wheels have to be just-in-time from the deep-freeze store 36 hours before the start of the production of carbon fibers for the aircraft industry within 72 hours. infoBoard plugins ensure that planning is monitored and colours are changed after a certain time.

 

In plant engineering, many parts are ordered externally. This means that assembly can only be carried out when all of the parts have arrived and been approved by the quality control department. But how does the information about the order and the arrival of parts get from the ERP System to the infoBoard? How can it be ensured that it is ordered on time? infoBoard has to specify the dates. Here, the reversal of the pattern orders is of new importance. The ordering process prior to production is calculated by infoBoard! Delivery changes are implemented automatically thanks to the infoBoard Converter and Synchronisation Server. The order numbers are still not known at the time when the order and deadlines are generated. Therefore, we offer a web application to transfer this information over.

Now, objects delayed beyond their latest delivery date will flash red on the planning board. With this new visualisation of delivery date / milestone overshoots, a perfect interaction between the system is possible.

Another challenge: on building sites, the decisive factor in relation to profit is adherence to the expected number of working hours and designated amounts of material. Is it possible to plan the delivery of construction site materials with infoBoard?

Yes! Instead of paperwork on the material row under the project (see “simple project planning” with infoBoard).Schedule deliveries with appointments, quantities etc. in the userdefined attributes page, and create a billing sheet for the construction site using an infoBoard BusinessController Web application. It doesn’t have to be an ERP system as well.