New demand and capacity planning product released by Preactor

The Preactor Group has today announced the release of its latest solution for scheduling and a new demand and capacity planning module – Preactor 400 GMPS.

The firm, which creates the Preactor range of production planning and scheduling software products for industries including manufacturing, logistics and services, said that Preactor 400 GMPS (Graphical Master Production Schedule) is an essential new tool. It will help companies who want to enhance competitiveness, increase profits and improve customer service.

The problems which frequently challenge the management of FMCG companies (fast-moving consumer goods) include unnecessarily high stock levels of both finished products and raw materials, as well as the possibility of this stock reaching its sell-by date before being consumed. Preactor 400 GMPS has been created to reduce this production problem by allowing effective purchasing of economical quantities of raw materials, plus their timely use.

“It complements our detailed scheduling software, and works both in a make-to-stock and a make-to-order environment, either as a standalone product or linked to ERP (enterprise resource planning) systems,” Mike Novels, CEO of the Preactor Group said.

Preactor 400 GMPS has already been subjected to a year-long trial by many well-known companies in Europe and North America, including Mars and Premier Foods. This has allowed suggested improvements to be built into the product before it is now launched universally.

For make-to-stock businesses, Preactor 400 GMPS uses current and expected future demands, as well as starting stock quantities and stock control rules, to decide how much of each product to make. The resulting required manufacturing quantities are then overlaid onto the real capacity of resources to produce a ‘capacity constrained plan’. This can then be input to the business’s ERP system, if one is in use.

Alternatively, for make-to-order businesses, Preactor 400 GMPS isn’t used to calculate manufacturing quantities. Instead, the user’s material requirements planning (MRP) process will calculate these, so Preactor 400 GMPS is used in parallel with this process. The software can be used to review manufacturing capacity against proposed changes in demand. For example, it can enable businesses to decide whether their current capacity is adequate, and if not the appropriate stage at which to increase capacity.