Date estimation

The estimated date for the current production order also factors in the actual cycle time of this Production Order once enough has been created on the order to give an accurate figure.

Infor MES knows this information:

Sequence of the job on the production line
Quantity to be produced on the job
Time it takes to make a piece. Target Cycle Time (TCT)
Budget efficiency of each line
Shift calendar, showing working and non-working time
Maintenance calendar

All of this information is used to project the estimated start and end dates of scheduled jobs. These estimations are constantly being re-assessed in the background to keep them up to date.

Note: After the jobs are started, the estimated date is replaced by the actual date.

The MES scheduler sequences a queue of jobs on a line and then estimates start and end dates based on the cycle time for the duration and schedules each one after the other, with the caveat that jobs should not be planned to start in non-working time.

If a job must not be scheduled to start before a specific date because, for example, the job is waiting for material, it is possible to define the earliest start date and time that the scheduler will always respect when calculating estimated dates.

Note: Opting to set the earliest start date/time can create a gap in the schedule only when layered over the existing logic.