ten-friction-points

Manual or outdated scheduling

• Reliance on Excel or paper → impossible to update in real time.
• Heavy dependence on the expertise of a single person.
• No ERP/MES integration → double data entry.

Lack of real-time visibility

• Data scattered across tools and people.
• No live work order (WO) tracking.
• Information comes back too late, with no insight into bottlenecks.

Frequent disruptions poorly managed

• Unanticipated breakdowns.
• Absences not taken into account.
• Line stoppages caused by quality defects.
• Material / stock shortages discovered too late.

Chaotic rescheduling

• Changing priorities with no logic everyone can follow.
• No way to simulate a change (what-if).
• Decisions made in a rush → drift.

Underused resources

• Workloads poorly balanced across lines, machines, operators and teams.
• Changeover / cleaning / calibration times ignored.
• Skills poorly allocated.

Technical constraints poorly modelled

• Specific needs of certain machines (heating, long cycles).
• Product incompatibilities ignored (production sequence).
• Quality control constraints not taken into account.

Weak cross-department coordination

• Unrealistic production planning.
• Maintenance & logistics out of alignment.
• Urgent requests imposed by sales with no real feasibility.

No performance tracking

• KPIs missing or misused (adherence, OTD, OEE…).
• No improvement loop on routing times.
• No correlation between delays and their root causes.

Rigid plan, not flexible enough

• Plan too fixed, unable to adapt to the day's priorities.
• No dynamic week / day scenarios.
• Short-term vision only.

Planner mental overload

• The planner = bottleneck.
• Constant pressure.
• No time for analysis, no preventive action possible.