Certified Transmission chose to implement advanced planning and scheduling software from Demand Solutions in January of 2010 to automate a manual scheduling process for the 75 transmission technicians at its Omaha, NE and Fort Dodge, IA plants.
Prior to implementing an automated scheduling system, Certified Transmission relied on a scheduler who walked around the plant in the afternoon asking each technician how many transmissions he needed for the next day. The scheduler would decide, more or less by intuition, which transmissions were needed and arrange to have them delivered to the work center by the next morning. The variables a scheduler would take into consideration to determine which technician would work on which transmissions the following day included productivity capabilities of individual technicians such as work speed and brand expertise, as well as demand for specific transmission brands and current orders.
A finite scheduling application was used to optimize the work flow based on technician skills and machine availability (e.g. testing dynometers, a step after rebuilding). The company now has written rules for the APS software to set priorities depending on criteria such as whether a particular transmission is an A or B mover and ideal stock levels. By standardizing the process, Certified Transmission was able to improve stocking levels – the company maintains an inventory of approximately 3,000 finished transmissions and $1.5 million in parts – and improve productivity.