The Arkieva^TM Finite Scheduler was designed from the ground up to support the needs of the modern supply chain.  A scheduler can immediately see the impact of a decision on the shop floor and shipment schedule.  Scheduling and distribution functions are integrated in the tool, making the entire production-distribution chain visible to the end user. 

Finite Scheduler Capabilities:

• Planning grid display: Intuitive display of production activities with capability to move activities around. 
• Any schedule change immediately creates soft pegs that update available-to-promise, violation, and inventory displays.
• Inventory problem board:  Color coded display to highlight shortages or targets exceeded.
• Product availability report: Day by day inventory positions of all products along with the ups and downs in the inventory.
• What-if scenarios:  Ability to answer what-if questions and save scenarios.

By encoding rates, changeover times, multi-level BOMs, routings, and capacity constraints, the human scheduler can create a good schedule almost immediately.  Rule based and manual changes can respond to last minute emergencies or force particular activities into the schedule.

• Tracking of many products and production activities
• Increased facility utilization from improved flow of materials
• Improved inventory position by better lotsizing
• Faster and more reliable production scheduling

Just the beginning
It is one thing to produce a supply plan; it is an entirely different task to create a production schedule. Determining a sequence of jobs on each resource that does not violate any constraints can take hours of intense, frustrating work. And that work, with some luck thrown in, only produces a feasible schedule. Even with lots of scheduling experience – and perhaps some rules of thumb to help the process along – the end result is still far from optimal. With substantial capital invested in
expensive manufacturing equipment, why not use it as effectively and efficiently as possible? What about coming up with a schedule under constantly changing pressures and shifting priorities? What about
responding rapidly to last minute requests from key customers, to material availability problems, or to
machine breakdowns? Suddenly those hours and hours spent creating a workable schedule are for naught,and the process must begin again.

Optimizing
The Arkieva Finite Scheduler interfaces with the Supply Planner to pull in the latest high level plan and begin to schedule it for production. By encoding rates, changeover times, and various constraints within the Finite Scheduler, it is possible to create a good schedule almost immediately. Then by optimizing key performance indicators (customized by you for your business), the schedule can be tweaked to improve it along various dimensions. Of course, manual adjustments can always be performed,
either to respond to last minute emergencies, or simply to force certain activities onto the schedule.

What-if . . .
So what happens when all of the questions come? Can production be increased for some SKU to fill an important order? How would the schedule change if a different resource were used for some activity? What if we stretch this, tweak that, and compress these together? With the what-if capabilities so central to Arkieva, it is easy to answer all of these questions, compare the answers, experiment with more changes, and then revert back to the version of the schedule that balances all of the priorities most effectively.

Reporting
The Arkieva Finite Scheduler also offers the same powerful reporting capabilities you’ve seen in the other modules. Creating a new report is as easy as making a few selections and pressing a button. Add a graph, export to Excel, or simply save it for later.

Power, ease of use, and flexibility
The Finite Scheduler, like the rest of the Arkieva suite, is designed for discrete batch or continuous
manufacturing operations. This capability makes it ideal for the many companies that, while classified as one type, have aspects of other processes in their operations. With Arkieva you get incredible power, ease of use, and the flexibility to tackle the unique problems your business faces.