Spreadsheet scheduling can't keep up with reality
The plan changes constantly. Excel and whiteboards collapse under rush orders, constraint rules, and finite capacity.
Today, and with Frontlink.
The planner's personal Excel file, daily re-planning meetings, and 'tribal knowledge' changeover rules that live in someone's head.
- Drag-and-drop timeline and Kanban views for production scheduling, assign orders to lines, set sequences, and publish schedules that operators see instantly.
- Changeover matrix templates encode time costs by product family, allergen class, colour, or viscosity, so the planner sees the real cost of every sequence change.
- Schedule freeze windows protect today's plan while allowing soft changes for tomorrow and beyond.
- Actual run rates from machine counters continuously adjust expected durations, the schedule stays honest as reality unfolds.
- Constraint-based rules (due-date priority, item group affinity, changeover minimisation) automate the tedious sequencing decisions.
- Time to value
- 1–2 weeks
- Complexity
- Medium
- Works with machine counters
- Partial
The problem
- Who feels it most
Planners, production managers, and shift leads who spend hours re-planning every day.
- Why ERP / WMS doesn't solve it
ERP planning is often infinite-capacity or too coarse. Finite scheduling features exist but are complex, expensive, and brittle without clean routing and master data. ISA-95 distinguishes detailed scheduling and dispatching as Level 3 MOM territory.
- How common is this?
Very common. Practitioner communities show real struggles enabling finite scheduling in ERP, with schedulers producing overlapping or impossible plans.
Business impact
- Late orders, expediting, and overtime from poor sequencing
- Excess changeovers when sequence isn't optimised for product families
- Missed sanitation or allergen constraints in food/cosmetics production
Frequently asked questions.
Who typically feels this problem?
Planners, production managers, and shift leads who spend hours re-planning every day.
Why doesn't an ERP or WMS system solve this?
ERP planning is often infinite-capacity or too coarse. Finite scheduling features exist but are complex, expensive, and brittle without clean routing and master data. ISA-95 distinguishes detailed scheduling and dispatching as Level 3 MOM territory.
How does Frontlink solve this?
Finite-capacity drag-and-drop scheduling with changeover intelligence. Drag-and-drop timeline and Kanban views for production scheduling, assign orders to lines, set sequences, and publish schedules that operators see instantly. Changeover matrix templates encode time costs by product family, allergen class, colour, or viscosity, so the planner sees the real cost of every sequence change. Schedule freeze windows protect today's plan while allowing soft changes for tomorrow and beyond. Actual run rates from machine counters continuously adjust expected durations, the schedule stays honest as reality unfolds. Constraint-based rules (due-date priority, item group affinity, changeover minimisation) automate the tedious sequencing decisions.
How quickly does it deliver value?
Typical time to value: 1–2 weeks. Implementation complexity: Medium.
Which process takes you the most time?
Book a 30-minute call. We look at your own examples together.
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