Overview

Production Planner enables detailed scheduling and management of manufacturing operations across shop floors. It coordinates the assignment of production orders to physical resources, respecting stage sequences, resource constraints, operating hours, and delivery deadlines.

The module is organized around a shop floor hierarchy: each Shop Floor contains Stages (representing sequential production steps), and each Stage contains Resources (physical equipment or machines). Production orders are scheduled onto resources as Jobs, which can be grouped into Campaigns for coordinated batch production.

Planners can build schedules manually, generate them automatically with Quick Schedule, or use the multi-objective Optimizer to explore trade-offs between competing priorities such as on-time delivery and changeover efficiency. The system continuously evaluates the schedule for exceptions, flagging issues like late orders, resource conflicts, and partially scheduled orders.

Main Features

Shop Floor Structure

Production is organized in a three-level hierarchy:

Shop Floor — the top-level production facility, associated with a specific location. Default operating hours are configured at this level.
Stage — a sequential production step within a shop floor. Stages are ordered, and jobs generally follow this sequence. Items can be configured to skip stages they don’t require.
Resource — a physical machine or piece of equipment within a stage. Jobs are assigned to resources, either directly or as part of a Campaign.

Each level can be configured through dedicated worksheets: Shop Floors, Stages, and Resources.

Production Orders

Production orders represent confirmed manufacturing requirements. Each order specifies an item (SKU), quantity, and location, along with a firm order date and expected delivery date. The number of batches is calculated automatically from the order quantity and the item’s incremental order quantity (IOQ).

Key fields visible in the Production Orders worksheet include:

PO Number — the order identifier.
SKU / Item Name / Product Family — what needs to be produced.
Location — the facility where the order is produced and fulfilled. Must match the shop floor’s location.
Expected Delivery Date — when the order must be completed.
First Job Start / Last Job Stop — the actual scheduled production window (populated once scheduled).
Is Scheduled — indicates whether the order is fully scheduled across all required production stages.

Orders display a red alert when the last scheduled job finishes after the expected delivery date, indicating the order will be delivered late.

Production Constraints

Production constraints define the relationship between items and resources. For each item-resource combination, the planner configures:

Setup Duration — time to prepare the resource before a production run begins. This is batch-agnostic and is applied once per job, regardless of the number of batches.
Processing Duration — per-batch production time. This is multiplied by the number of batches to calculate total processing time.
Cleaning Duration — time to clean the resource after production completes. Like setup, this is batch-agnostic and applied once per job.
Interruptible — whether the job can be paused and resumed across non-contiguous time windows (e.g., across shifts or around downtimes).

Total job run time = Setup + (Processing × Batches) + Cleaning.

Production Change Constraints

Change constraints capture the changeover time required when switching a resource from producing one item to another. Each constraint defines a from-item, to-item, and the change duration for a specific resource.

These changeover times are factored into scheduling. The Optimizer can minimize total changeover time as one of its objectives, helping planners sequence production efficiently.

Jobs and Campaigns

Jobs

A Job is the fundamental scheduling unit — an individual production task assigned to a specific resource with a defined start and stop time. Each job’s total run time is broken down into phases: setup, processing, cleaning, and (if applicable) changeover.

Jobs can be standalone or grouped within a Campaign. When an order requires multi-stage production, it will have separate jobs on resources across different stages, following the required stage sequence.

Campaigns

A Campaign groups related production jobs by product family on a single resource within a defined time window. Campaigns help coordinate batch production and track resource utilization.

Key campaign metrics:

Total Available Time — the full production window from campaign start to stop.
Utilization — calculated as (last job end time − campaign start) ÷ total available time. If utilization exceeds 100%, an Over-utilized exception is raised.

Scheduling

PLAIO offers three approaches to building a production schedule:

Manual Scheduling

Planners can create and move jobs directly through the Shop Floor Scheduler interface. This includes assigning jobs to resources, moving jobs between campaigns, and adjusting timing.

Quick Schedule

Quick Schedule automatically generates an initial schedule for selected orders starting from a given date. The system suggests job placements respecting resource constraints, stage sequences, and operating hours. Planners review the suggestions and confirm to save.

Optimizer

Planners select two objectives to balance:

Minimize Tardiness — reduce the number of days orders are delivered late.
Minimize Earliness — reduce the number of days orders are completed before they’re needed.
Minimize Changeover Time — reduce total setup and changeover duration across the schedule.
Minimize Missed Orders — maximize the number of orders completed by their delivery date.

The Optimizer returns multiple solutions, each representing a different trade-off between the two selected objectives. Each solution is saved as a separate Production Version for comparison.

Production Versions

Production Versions are named snapshots of a scheduling scenario for a shop floor. They allow planners to:

Compare different scheduling strategies side by side.
Evaluate Optimizer results before committing to a plan.
Track who created or modified each version and when.

Worksheets that depend on scheduling data (Jobs, Campaigns, Exceptions) require a Production Version to be selected.

Uptime and Downtime

Downtimes

Downtimes represent scheduled periods when a resource or entire shop floor is unavailable for production. Common reasons include maintenance, holidays, or facility closures.

Downtimes can be defined at two levels:

• Floor-level — affects all resources on the shop floor.

• Resource-level — affects only a specific resource.

Downtimes are inclusive at start and exclusive at stop. This means a job can begin exactly when a downtime ends.

Uptime Patterns and Overrides

Default operating hours are configured at the shop floor level. Uptime Patterns are reusable schedule templates that can be applied as overrides for specific dates.

Uptime Overrides allow planners to adjust operating hours for individual dates at either the floor or resource level — useful for holidays, extended shifts, or weekend production runs.

Exceptions

The system continuously evaluates the production schedule and flags issues that require attention. Exceptions are displayed in the Exceptions worksheet and include:

Exception Type	Description
Over-utilized	Total job run time, measured from campaign start to last job end, exceeds the available campaign time window.
Overlaps with other Campaign	Two campaigns on the same resource conflict in time.
Campaign Order Collision	Campaign jobs overflow into the next campaign’s time window.
Partially Scheduled	Not all required production stages have been fully scheduled for an order.
Invalid Job Order	Jobs are scheduled on stages out of the required logical sequence.
Late Order	The last scheduled job finishes after the order’s expected delivery date.
Quantity and IOQ Mismatch	Order quantity is not a multiple of the incremental order quantity.
Job Overlap	Two jobs overlap in time on the same resource.
Location Mismatch	The order’s location does not match the shop floor’s location.

Definitions

Term	Description
Campaign	A time-boxed batch of related production jobs grouped by product family on a single resource. Campaigns coordinate the manufacturing of similar products to minimize changeover time.
Cleaning Duration	The time required to clean a resource after completing a production run, before the next job can begin. Applied once per job regardless of the number of batches.
Downtime	A scheduled period when a resource or entire shop floor is unavailable for production. Can be applied at the floor level or at the individual resource level.
Exception	A scheduling issue or constraint violation detected by the system. Exceptions highlight problems such as late orders, overlapping jobs, or partially scheduled orders.
Expected Delivery Date	The calendar date on which a production order must be completed and ready. Used to evaluate whether scheduled production finishes on time.
Firm Order Date	The date on which a production order was confirmed or committed.
Interruptible	A flag on a production constraint indicating whether a job can be paused and resumed across non-contiguous time windows.
Job	An individual production task scheduled on a specific resource. Each job has a start time, stop time, and run-time breakdown covering setup, processing, cleaning, and changeover phases.
Late Order	An exception raised when the last scheduled job for a production order finishes after the expected delivery date.
Optimizer	An advanced multi-objective scheduling engine that generates Pareto-optimal production schedules. Planners select two objectives to balance, such as minimizing tardiness and minimizing changeover time.
Processing Duration	The per-batch production time required to manufacture an item on a given resource. Multiplied by the number of batches to calculate total processing time.
Production Change Constraint	The changeover time required when switching a resource from producing one item to another. Defined per resource as a from-item/to-item pair with an associated duration.
Production Constraint	A configuration linking an item to a resource. Defines the setup, processing, and cleaning durations required to produce that item, along with whether the job is interruptible.
Production Order	A manufacturing order specifying an item, quantity, location, and delivery date. Production orders are scheduled onto shop floor resources as jobs. The number of batches is calculated automatically from the order quantity and IOQ.
Production Version	A named snapshot of a scheduling scenario for a shop floor. Multiple versions allow planners to compare different scheduling strategies before committing.
Quick Schedule	An automated scheduling feature that generates an initial production schedule for selected orders starting from a given date.
Resource	A physical piece of equipment or machine within a production stage. Jobs are assigned to resources directly or as part of a campaign.
Setup Duration	The time required to prepare a resource before a production run begins. Applied once per job, regardless of the number of batches.
Shop Floor	The top-level production facility entity, associated with a location. Contains multiple stages organized in production sequence.
Stage	A production step within a shop floor. Stages are ordered sequentially and each contains one or more resources. Items can be configured to skip stages they do not require.
Uptime Override	A date-specific override of the default operating hours for a resource or shop floor. Used for holidays, special shifts, or extended operating periods.
Uptime Pattern	A reusable schedule template defining operating hours. Patterns can be applied as overrides to resources or shop floors for specific dates.
Utilization	A measure of how much of a campaign’s available time is consumed by production. Calculated as (last job end time − campaign start) ÷ total available time. Campaigns exceeding 100% utilization trigger an Over-utilized exception.