Aunt Bessie’s reports turnaround on QAD and Preactor

"Without Preactor, the questions we are now asking might never have been asked, because we just wouldn't have been aware of the possibility of improvements," states Buckle. "The system is already helping drive process change [around] how we best run our production lines," he adds, explaining that complexity derives from its Aunt Bessie's production of 20 million Yorkshire Puddings per week, as well as frozen and fresh sweet and savoury products in a variety of sizes. "The increased visibility from Preactor has helped us to respond quicker, especially when we have a problem on a line," says Buckle. "Beforehand, it could take a day for us even to notice, and then additional time to work out how best to react. Now we can see much more quickly when a problem is occurring and investigate different scenarios for dealing with it." Buckle also indicates that Aunt Bessie's can now immediately amend stock it does or doesn't need to move into its short-term holding area, so minimising costs and optimising space in that critical part of the factory. "Better visibility of stock by product group also helps with capacity planning, which helps bring further storage efficiency cost savings," he explains. And he adds that one of the most significant but unpredicted benefits is the change in attitude towards planning. "Now we are focussed not on 'can we make it' but 'how can we make it better'," he explains. "The emphasis previously was on satisfying orders, whereas now we can not only see the associated costs at each stage of the plan, but also take these into account when deciding what to do." Furthermore, for Aunt Bessie's, introducing APS has not only been the catalyst, but also the lynchpin for brining maintenance and operations together like never before. For the first time, planned maintenance is being taken into consideration when developing production plans, in terms of detailed capacity and resource availability. As Buckle says, not only does that provide an indication of the factory's real, rather than theoretical, capabilities, but also it avoids the nightmare of allocating work to a line, which then has to be unallocated at short notice. Read more in depth in the next issue of Works Management (September 2011), on advanced planning and scheduling.