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Transparency, gained by the VPS, helps Davis & Shirtliff keeping delivery on-time

When lead times shifted, the Visual Production Scheduler (VPS) helped mastering the big challenge of the timely and accurate dissemination of information

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Davis and Shirtliff (D&S), a well establised Kenya based company, sells innovative solutions for water and energy systems throughout Eastern and Central Africa. Each solution is tailored to the individual needs of the customers, so each sales order comes along with a project-based manufacturing process.

Dayliff machine

 

Visual transparency is the key to keeping delivery on time

Production planning at D&S was done without Microsoft Dynamics NAV using Microsoft Project or Microsoft Excel. There were only verbal agreements between production engineers and sales engineers on when the orders would be ready. In case of a change in delivery date, there was no formal or delayed verbal confirmation to the sales engineer, so on the part of the end customers there was increasing dissatisfaction about wrong committed delivery dates combined with no information from the sales team.

 

Dissemination of information via a planning board

In the planning process there are several steps involved: from receiving an order, confirming availability of raw materials, communicating between production engineers to sales engineers on expected completition dates, job scheduling, assembly, to completion and invoicing.

In the day to day business the dissemination of information regarding delivery dates, stocked out components as well as shifts in lead times became a big problem. The production engineer team was plagued with constant complaints from the sales engineer team on missed delivery dates, resulting in a lot of emailing back and forth. To make the whole process more transparent for all parties involved, D&S integrated the Visual Production Scheduler in their NAV system.

The Visual Production Scheduler provides more than one benefit

Lena Muturi (Production Coordinator) from D&S summarizes:

„Transparency was the key for us. With the VPS, our sales engineers are able to visually see their production orders and schedule deliveries and installations for their clients based on the indicated production end date. But we could solve a lot of other problems, as well“.

Today at D&S the VPS enhances:

  • communication to front-line staff on accurate delivery dates and factors affecting changes in the production schedule
  • capacity planning and load balancing among technicians (overloading some staff while others were under-utilized)
  • optimizing staff utilization – justification on additional outsourced labor

Planning today

As Charles Kebaso (Engineering Manager) from D&S happily states:

“VPS has enabled us execute our orders with military precision. All the production orders are planned and proactively monitored to ensure the delivery dates are met as promised.”

The production order view gives full overview to planned and released orders.

Dayliff VPS

 

The capacity view shows the planner all resources and their allocations.

Dayliff VPS RV

 

Load balancing among technicians became easy by using the load view.

Dayliff VPS Load

„The integration of the Visual Production Scheduler was very easy. Today multiple planners use the tool across various engineering departments. We also work with the JavaScript edition of the VPS, so our various locations in Eastern and Central Africa are able to view the production schedule via browser.“ 
Joab Mak'Ongul (CIO, D&S)

Inaccurate data came to light

The visualization of the planning process also exposed inaccurate routing run times, which are now rectified. 

Additionally, the visualization triggered improvements in reporting and generation of system notifications when production orders are both scheduled and re-scheduled.

Discover how NETRONIC can help you run your shop better with visual production scheduling

 

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Learn more about the product that brought scheduling success to Davis & Shirtliff

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Summary: tangible visual production scheduling benefits

Visual transparency as key to keeping delivery on time

Disclosure of incorrect data

Better capacity utilization through improved company-wide information flow

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