Orders and staff planning in one Gantt chart: PPS Control Station at AKO realized with VARCHART XGantt

For more than 65 years, the AKO Agrartechnik has been developing and producing electric pasture fences. Constant innovations characterize the wide spectrum of products of AKO Agrartechnik. At the site in Wangen, energizers of 12V, 9V and 3V are being produced in different types. The wide-ranging requirements of our customers need a high degree of flexibility and short delivery times.

To meet these requirements the PPS control station has been introduced at the beginning of 2006 to distribute the production orders from the ERP Microsoft Dynamics NAV to the individual workstations in the best way possible. To provide the user with the optimum overview, the application has been developed together with NETRONIC, using the NETRONIC VARCHART ActiveX Control. At the end of last year, the application has been revised so that now also the resource scheduling of staff can be performed in the Gantt chart.

"We wanted to realize the extension of the PPS control station only in cooperation with NETRONIC. They made practical suggestions to solve our problems to our satisfaction and hence to make full use of the versatile new functions of the NETRONIC VARCHART ActiveX Control", says Christian Meiersick, Head of IT Department of the Kerbl group.

Picture 1: Kerbl PPS Control Station

The production orders and staff working times are being taken directly from the ERP Microsoft Dynamics NAV. The production orders can then be shifted and hence be priorized in an optimal way. It is also possible to visualize production orders whose confirmed end dates have been exceeded by the shifting.

Illness-caused absences of employees for example can either be compensated by flexible part-time employees or the according absences are being recorded. In this case, the production order and all others following at this work-station will be delayed. For an optimum overview the production orders as well as the staff working times are illustrated by colors. The Gantt PPS control station can also be used by the departments for a mere display of the current planning result (without authorization to carry out changes).