Plastics · Industry Solution
Production Planning for Plastics
In plastics production, mold life, cycle time and the regrind/recycling balance require functions to manage both the machine and the material side together. Manage production operations in one system, from bill of materials and routing to capacity planning, work orders and shop-floor tracking. The module works integrated with sales, purchasing and inventory.
Plastics context
Why Production Planning works differently in Plastics
In Plastics, plastics production center on sector-specific concepts such as injection-extrusion, mold management, raw-material/additive blend. In plastics production, mold life, cycle time and the regrind/recycling balance require functions to manage both the machine and the material side together.
Qera ERP's Production Planning module is set up around how the plastics sector works: Schedules injection and extrusion jobs by mold availability and cycle time to reduce machine idle time.
- When the recipe (raw material, masterbatch, additive ratios) and scrap aren't calculated clearly, the true product cost is unknown.
- When mold usage, life and maintenance aren't tracked, unplanned downtime and quality issues arise.
- When regrind/recycled material isn't tracked, the material balance and cost don't add up.
Capabilities
How Qera Production Planning works in Plastics
The core capabilities of the Production Planning module, described for the mold, cycle and raw-material blend needs of the plastics sector.
Bill of materials and routing definitions
Define raw material bills of materials (BOM) and operation routings for each product; manage recycling and scrap with teardown BOMs as well.
Capacity and scheduling
Create new plans, planned production runs and a production schedule that takes machine and labor capacity into account.
Pending planning
List approved but unplanned work orders and orders; distribute the workload effectively by seeing priority jobs.
Work orders
Define each production job as a work order containing materials, routing and planned dates, so the shop-floor team can see what to produce and when.
Station and shift management
Monitor station states (idle, busy, faulty) in real time; manage operation start-end times and shift plans.
Production reports and analysis
Measure efficiency with production process, standard-vs-actual time, operation and work-order reports; see product profitability by combining with financial data.
Outcomes
What it delivers for your Plastics business
What you see in plastics operations once it is set up properly.
- BOMs and routings are defined to a standard, so cost calculations are consistent.
- Scheduling follows machine and labor capacity, which reduces unplanned stoppages and bottlenecks.
- The status of work orders and stations is visible in real time.
- Planned and actual times are compared, which shows where efficiency is lost.
Explore further
Related pages
Full details of the Production Planning module, the Plastics sector page and other Plastics solutions.
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