Forum Discussion
Creating production schedule in Project
I will convert one experiment schedule on 'Action' based items and see if that makes things more meaningful and revert.
In the screenshot, the tasks were manually scheduled, as they were previously planned, all new tasks added were in auto, we convert those in manual to change during levelling in newly added tasks.
In your fourth item, you say ' task that is in progress', what does that mean? Are those the tasks with dates of current date or behind current date? or all the tasks listed/scheduled above current editing task?
I suggest you change everything to auto-scheduled whether previously planned or not.
By "task in progress" I simply mean a task that is started. When a task starts you should enter a date, and time if necessary, into the Actual Start field. Project will then adjust the Start field to agree with that date (i.e. adjust the plan to reflect reality). You can then also enter a value into the % Complete field as appropriate. If the task started as planned (i.e. started on the date in the Start field), then you can enter a value in the % Complete field and Project will automatically enter the Start date into the Actual Start field.
A task that started may or may not be expected to finish as planned (i.e. the task duration is less or more than originally planned). Once the actual start is established, you should also determine is the task's planned duration is still valid. If not, then you should enter an appropriate value into the Remaining Duration field.
John
RodFromm ,
I tried to create a simpler example on the link below:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1mHOdtK6_3zPY89O6aBfbJ-QHhW2kus47/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=101171441246165589914&rtpof=true&sd=trueEach bold row item indicated as firstone, secondone is a summary task, which basically is a finished product, and M1, M2, M3 are the machines for three different process stages. There will be multiple machine suitable for a stage, and we will allocate the one while creating a schedule.
I will try to keep similar color product as closely scheduled as possible, if in all cases it may be not possible that's fine, similarly at another stage I will prefer to keep same size product near by scheduled.
I have seen "Siemens Opcenter" as an alternative for this purpose, you may find it on internet.
Opcenter Production Scheduling for Plastic Injection Molding - ATS Global
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzPnpAsS4PA
APS vs ERP Scheduling: What APS Does that ERP Does Not (Opcenter Planning & Scheduling Webinar)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffcOSuskqEs
Basically we are able to schedule it well, challenge is current practicle does not care if all or most blue are nearby scheduled? so we need to do many set up changes if wish to follow, do you find some workaround? Please suggest.
- John,
If so, then it simply means we can not schedule based on color/size/such attributes and if there are no other ways to achieve it in MS project, then I would infer MS project is not suitable for production scheduling. I was hopeful that this would be achieved, at east with some tricks etc. - mkjain,
Yes you can create custom fields for color, size or any other attribute and you can even group on those fields. But custom fields are independent of Project's scheduling engine, custom fields are simply adjunct information.
Keep in mind that leveling only applies to resources, information in custom fields cannot be "leveled".
John - Hi,
I meant basic steps how to group based on color, like what features of ms project to use and how to. One way I expect is , create a custom field for color, group them by color.
View more group and create a group for color .
Then apply and level all? - mkjain,
Again, not fully knowing or understanding your process flow I can't tell you how to arrange your scheduling by color or size. You are the best one to determine which better fits with your process flow.
I suggest you try different scenarios and see which works best for you.
John I tested 'Action' based scheduling in last 2 days. It has some practical challenges at shop floor, we did see better comfort in arranging tasks stage wise, but then linking them between stages was a real challenge, because of grouping of products in one reel at one stage (for same size/color) etc.
After testing that we find that the current method (product wise) scheduling is suitable for our environment. So question remains about how to group based on color and size, as I requested in my previous post:
You asked whether to prefer color or size, I would say I can settle with one item at any particular process stage say Size and at another stage with color grouping? Is it possible to implement? Else I can also be fine with just one item say Size.
Can you please guide through this.
Thank you for all your support.
