Production Scheduling for the Process Industries: Strategies, Systems, and Culture

This book is aimed at manufacturing and planning managers who struggle to bring a greater degree of stability and more effective use of assets to their operations, not realizing the degree to which production scheduling affects those objectives. It has been reported that 75% of the problems on the manufacturing floor are caused by activities outside the plant floor. Poor production scheduling strategies and systems are often the biggest contributors to the 75%.

The book explains in detail that no scheduling strategy, and especially no transition to a different and better scheduling strategy, will succeed without strong commitment and guidance from senior leadership. Leadership must understand their active role in the transition, that people will feel uncomfortable and even threatened by change, and that they will need to be measured by different standards. Effective scheduling requires that following the schedule and production to plan is more important than trying to maximize each day’s throughput.

The book explains the advantages of a structured, regularly repeating schedule: how it can increase throughput, right-size inventory based on cycles and variabilities and therefore make it more usable, and improve customer delivery. It will explain the trade-offs between throughput, inventory, and delivery performance, how those trade-offs are actually decided in production scheduling, and how an appropriate scheduling strategy can make the trade-offs and their ramifications visible. It discusses several popular structured scheduling concepts, their similarities, and differences, to allow the readers to decide which might fit best in their environments.

In addition, the authors discuss what makes an appropriate scheduling software system, and why a package designed for structured scheduling offers capabilities well beyond the Excel workbooks used by many companies, and how it offers much more design capability and ease of use than the finite scheduling modules in SAP or Oracle.

Finally, the authors offer a proven roadmap for implementation, critical success factors necessary to achieve the full potential, and give examples of operations that have done this well. In addition, a guide for leaders and managers post-implementation is provided to help them fully exploit the advantages of a structured, repeating scheduling strategy.

Peter L. King is the president of Lean Dynamics, LLC, where he has spent the last 14 years applying lean concepts and tools to a diverse group of clients in the chemical, food & beverage, consumer products, and nutraceutical industries. Prior to founding Lean Dynamics, Pete spent 40 years with the DuPont Company, in a variety of control systems, manufacturing automation, continuous flow manufacturing, and lean manufacturing and lean supply chain assignments. The last 18 years at DuPont were spent applying lean techniques to a wide variety of products, including sheet goods like DuPont(TM) Tyvek(R), Sontara(R), and Mylar(R); fibers such as nylon, Dacron(R), Lycra(R), and Kevlar(R); automotive paints; performance lubricants; bulk chemicals; adhesives; electronic circuit board substrates; and biological materials used in human surgery. On behalf of DuPont, Pete consulted with key customers in the processed food and carpet industries.

Pete retired from DuPont in 2007, leaving a position as Principal Consultant in the Lean Center of Competency. Pete received a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Virginia Tech, graduating with honors. He is Six Sigma Green Belt certified (DuPont, 2001), Lean Manufacturing certified (University of Michigan, 2002), and is an APICS Certified Supply Chain Consultant (CSCP, 2010). He is a member of the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers, the Association for Manufacturing Excellence, the Association for Supply Chain Management, and APICS.

Pete has authored four books published by Productivity Press: Lean for the Process Industries, first and second editions (2009, 2019), The Product Wheel Handbook (2013), and Value Stream Mapping for the Process Industries (2015). He has authored a dozen magazine articles, and is a frequent presenter at technical society conferences. Pete is an avid runner, having completed a marathon and more than a hundred 5K, 5 mile, and 10K races.

He currently resides in Dewey Beach, DE, with his wife of 42 years, Bonnie H. King.

Mac Jacob has implemented four generations of Advanced Planning and Scheduling Software and SAP MRP II at over 100 Proctor & Gamble sites worldwide. He started as a project engineer at a manufacturing site, and moved through assignments of production line manager, production planning manager, site logistics manager, and North American Planning Manager for Luvs Diapers. He began to see how the lack of supply chain systems prevented the Diaper business from executing its product and manufacturing strategy and led a project to improve P&G’s planning systems. He was the business leader, developed the business processes, and wrote the original training materials for most of P&G’s supply chain processes: Production Execution, Warehouse and Shipping, Distribution Requirements Planning, Site Planning, Category Planning, and Supply Chain Master Data.

Mac is a recipient of P&G’s Magnus Award for lifetime contribution to supply chain improvement. He is APICS Certified in Production and Inventory Management (CPIM), with the SCOR-P endorsement. He is certified by Oliver Wight as an MRP II instructor and was a P&G Lead Instructor and Master for Site Planning, DRP, and Supply Chain Master Data.

Since retiring from P&G, Mac has worked on several global supply chain management projects as a consultant and is currently the Head of Product for Phenix Planning and Scheduling.

Mac graduated Cum Laude from the University of Michigan with a degree in Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering. He was on the sailing team and captain of the ski team. He earned his MBA from Xavier University. He now lives in Harbor Springs, Michigan, with his wife of 39 years, Suzie. When not designing and implementing production planning software, he is active in sailing, bicycling, skiing, and as an assistant coach of the Harbor Springs High School Ski Team.

Noel Peberdy has had a multi-faceted career across the value chain of process manufacturing operations, focusing on people and process, harnessing technology to drive transformative change. His early career centered on solving complex system-level problems using dynamic simulation to optimize mineral processing, metallurgical and food/beverage plants, and operations in deep underground mines. Building a plant in the computer, using mathematical models to simulate the reality of the system, led to his career focus - ＂connecting the dots＂ and ＂bridging silos.＂ He was also fortunate to have led numerous rescue operations on failed or troubled projects -- A newly developed gold mine in which the extraction plant control system didn’t work and put people’s lives at risk; An offshore gas platform on which the safety systems and emergency shutdown systems did not work; A Brewing plant that was performing well below potential. Navigating through these crises - still meeting key dates - demanded out-of-the-box methods, ruthless focus on the ingredients for success - and importantly, an awareness of the interdependencies between the moving parts - People, Process, Technology, and Data aspects - to architect long term success.

At the other end of the spectrum, he has had a central role in conceiving, designing, and bringing several transformative greenfields projects to life. This gave him and his team opportunities to architect plants of the future, fully realizing Stages 3-to-4 capabilities and performance. Production scheduling in a process manufacturing operation is a complex systems-level challenge. In his consulting work, Noel realized that scheduling is the most significant disconnect in the process manufacturing value chain. Noel has an MSc in Engineering in Distributed Computer Control Systems from the University of Cape Town. He has founded four successful companies In Africa and North America.

He is an avid outdoor person. Canoeing and hiking in the wilds of Canada is a passion. He has been married to Ellie Zweegman for 37 years, with whom he has three children. He lives in Southern Ontario, Canada.