Production Plan Tracking
About Company
A global manufacturing corporation specializing in industrial automation and digital transformation solutions. As an industry leader, they drive innovation in smart manufacturing technologies and help other organizations modernize their production processes.
Services and Technology
Challenge
The client's production planning team was struggling with an outdated, manual job-tracking system built entirely on Excel spreadsheets. This legacy approach created significant operational bottlenecks:
- Production managers spent hours manually updating job schedules and resource allocations
- Reordering production plans required tedious manual data manipulation across multiple spreadsheets
- No centralized view of historical production data for trend analysis or performance optimization
- Risk of human error in critical production planning decisions
- Inability to quickly respond to changing production demands or resource constraints
Solution
Elitmind developed a comprehensive .NET production management application that transformed their entire planning workflow:
- Automated order repository with real-time data synchronization
- Intuitive dashboard for production planning and resource optimization
- Historical data analytics with customizable reporting capabilities
- Seamless integration with existing SAP systems
- User-friendly interface designed for production floor manager
Results
- Eliminated manual Excel-based processes, reducing planning time by an estimated 70%
- Created a single source of truth for all production planning and historical data
- Enabled real-time production adjustments and resource optimization
- Improved data accuracy and eliminated human error in production scheduling
- Provided managers with actionable insights through integrated SAP connectivity and historical trend analysis
Tailored for success
"The key to success was understanding that this wasn't just a technology project - it was about changing how people work. We spent as much time on change management and user adoption as we did on coding. When production managers saw how the new system eliminated their daily 3-hour Excel marathon, they became our biggest champions."
Our Approach
We conducted a comprehensive evaluation of the client's existing Excel-based production tracking system to identify inefficiencies, data silos, and manual bottlenecks. Our team mapped current workflows and identified areas where automation could deliver the most significant impact.
We implemented an iterative development approach, delivering working prototypes every two weeks and gathering continuous feedback from production managers. This ensured the final solution matched real-world usage patterns and operational needs.
Rather than replacing the client's existing SAP infrastructure, we designed our .NET application to integrate seamlessly with their current systems, ensuring data consistency and eliminating duplicate data entry across platforms.
We developed a robust data migration strategy to transfer years of historical production data from Excel files into the new system, ensuring no critical information was lost during the transition.
We prioritized intuitive design, creating dashboards and workflows that mirrored how production managers naturally think about their work. The interface was designed to minimize training time and maximize user adoption.
We implemented a carefully planned rollout strategy, starting with pilot departments and gradually expanding it across the organization. This approach minimized disruption while allowing for fine-tuning based on real-world usage.