Our Enterprise-Wide Manufacturing Data System performs planning and scheduling, why would I want to invest in yet another software system?
The expertise of Data System vendors resides in Database and Transaction Systems, not planning and scheduling. If your Data System is capable of planning or scheduling, it may not be fully capable of generating operationally feasible schedules. Furthermore, if scheduling is not the main product focus of the vendor, its growth path is not assured. You may not have access to advanced capabilities such as cost optimization or improved capacity utilization as the scheduling software industry expands the technology envelope. If you perform production scheduling with less capable methods, you concede a valuable competitive advantage. The best way to remain competitive is to assemble a system composed of best-of-breed software for each aspect of your business. Before committing to the scheduling engine included in your Data System software, verify that it is capable of handling your real process constraints and that it can generate usable schedules.
