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Today's Automation News Headlines from Automation.com
| GE Fanuc announces Proficy Scheduler | ||
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 July 15, 2009 GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms, a unit of GE Enterprise Solutions, today announced Proficy Scheduler - powered by ROB-EX. This interactive, visual tool helps planners create and maintain more dynamic and effective production schedules based on resources and asset capacity. The software provides an integrated view of the production plan and resources across the plant that enables optimizing and balancing the plan with the impacts and constraints of resources such as materials, energy, labor, and equipment, and delivery times. It graphically shows the consequences of the plan into the future, so a better plan is possible. The results: Proficy Scheduler was developed in conjunction with Novotek Planning Systems of Denmark, a company with deep domain expertise in production planning and extensive experience integrating their solutions with Proficy solutions across Northern Europe. Proficy Scheduler operates as a stand-alone system or fully integrated with Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and/or Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES), such as GE Fanuc’s award-winning Proficy Plant Applications. While useful as a stand-alone planning tool, combining Proficy Scheduler with Proficy Plant Applications creates a powerful combination for real-time tracking of actual production, consumption, and events with their impact on schedule adherence. Taking this a step further, the solution integrates with ERP systems, closing the loop from the enterprise to the plant and back to the enterprise. Orders and bill of materials come down from the ERP, Proficy Scheduler helps planners then balance and optimize the plan and resources, Plant Applications tracks everything in real-time, and reports consumption and production back to the ERP, closing the loop in real-time. Proficy Scheduler is flexible, with easy-to-use tools to define equipment and personnel resources, primary and secondary resource capacity calendars, and product routings. It can be configured to the needs of manufacturers of varying types and sizes, and they can easily and effectively accomplish tasks such as: “Manufacturers are under increasing pressure to do more with less -- less people, less inventory, less time, less expense,” said Sheila Kester, General Manager of GE Fanuc’s Operations Management software group. “Planners are often forced to do their work with inadequate tools with limited visibility to plant floor operations. It is getting harder to deliver results when smaller orders, more frequent changeovers, more product SKUs, and more complicated products are the norm. A visual tool integrated with plant floor operations is needed to avoid many problems induced by poor scheduling and to quickly adapt the schedule to changing conditions across the supply chain.” “Proficy Scheduler provides visual interaction and rule management that enable the planner to better leverage their knowledge and experience to quickly create and adjust production schedules,” said Coleman Easterly, Product General Manager for GE Fanuc. “It brings more agility to the scheduling function and results in more viable schedules that take into account the impact on resources and the impact from resources.” “Proficy Scheduler is a great example of GE driving innovation for customers,” concluded Kester. “It brings a more effective way of production planning, to help manufacturers run a smoother operation, to take out costs, reduce resource consumption, and improve productivity and competitiveness.” About GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms, a joint venture between General Electric Company (NYSE: GE) and FANUC LTD of Japan, is an experienced high-performance technology company and a global provider of hardware, software, services, and expertise in automation and embedded computing. We offer a unique foundation of agile, advanced and ultra-reliable technology that provides customers a sustainable advantage in the industries they serve, including energy, water, consumer packaged goods, government & defense, and telecommunications. GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms is a worldwide company headquartered in Charlottesville, VA and is part of GE Enterprise Solutions. |
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