Opening the Door to Automated Scheduling

Project Type: Scheduling Automation

During a PE firm's due diligence cycle, AMEND completed an operations assessment for one of the firm's portfolio companies - a custom garage door manufacturer. The goal of the assessment was to determine the quality of processes related to the entire business. The outcome led to a review of the scheduling process which was taking the majority of the day to complete. It involved running outdated Excel macros that had not been updated in several years. Our explicit goal was to reduce the time required to schedule by 75% - an objective we were able to achieve using process mapping to identify where the old program had become outdated and where newer technology could be implemented to reduce the runtime.

 

  • Company Overview

    • Industry: Manufacturing, Custom Garage Doors
    • Est. Revenue: $30MM/Year

  • Assessing the Landscape

    • Hundreds of thousands of finished products - constantly developing more
    • Manufacturing facility in Warsaw, IN with distribution centers in TN & MO
    • Five primary production lines ranging from standard products to completely custom

  • Identifying Opportunity

    • Limited process automation – many manual processes
    • Limited technical resources
    • Limited product tracking

I. The Process

Identified pain points

We created process maps and documentation of the current system to identify improvement opportunities and areas for quick wins that would have a lasting impact.

Developed a Solution

Using our notes from the process documentation, we began laying the architecture for the solution. No two systems are the same so we worked to understand what is best for the client.

Feedback Loop

Following implementation of the scheduling tool, we launched an iterative feedback loop with the client to fine-tune the tool for maximal benefit.

II. The Solution

Process Mapping

We reviewed the scheduling process to identify key automation opportunities. We documented process handoffs and potential future opportunities.

Implemented Production Scheduling Tool

 

We designed a comprehensive scheduling program to minimize the manual nature of the scheduling process. The tool optimizes the schedule and reduces the need for "tribal knowledge." The previous method of spending 8 hrs/day manually scheduling was reduced to 3 hrs/day.

III. Results

3.3. MM

Cost Reduction

100%

Systems Integration

75%

Reduction in scheduling time

"Not only does AMEND get to know us, they dig down and get to know our business and product. They’ve completed a scheduling program, saving several hours a day in putting our daily schedule together, and are the project manger for a product configurator which is a major undertaking for our organization.

As we look at our business, we’re constantly coming up with ideas/projects and saying, bet Amend could help us with that."

- Controller

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