Preactor makes light work of scheduling at Mode Lighting

Mode general manager Ian Hodgson says staff utilisation levels were previously around 60% but are now better than 82%, despite the wide range of skill sets. That alone, he says, has enabled the company to cope with demand variability in a rapidly changing business environment. "Any machine resource is very much an aid to our people, not the other way around," comments Hodgson. The new system, he explains, deals with issues such as individual workers' shift patterns, holidays and study programmes, all of which have to be factored into the production plan. Hitherto, attempts to make that work with the company's Fourth Shift ERP software had led to a range of custom Exel spreadsheets. Investing in Preactor, from reseller The Planning Board, led, he says, to a custom matrix of 15 calendar permutations for every worker, enabling the system to schedule accurately by human resource. "[This] has brought stability and realism not just to our planning but to the company as a whole. In these difficult times of varying demand it is hard to imagine how we could have managed as well as we have without Preactor."