How QAD’s MSW/PSW can help your company manage a materials shortage

Posted on: June 25, 2021 | By: David Kwo | QAD Financials, QAD Manufacturing, QAD Business Process, QAD Distribution

A plastics shortage has persisted in the United States since the Texas Freeze in February. One of the largest exporters of plastics and petrochemicals, Texas faced mass blackouts during Winter Storm Uri this year, forcing the shutdown of many chemical plants. Though the weather has warmed, the plants have been slow to reopen, as the process of restarting a chemical plant is tedious and dangerous and thus cannot be rushed.

The ensuing scarcity of plastics and other materials as a result of the plant shutdowns has caused their market prices to spike, and the Wall Street Journal projects that these prices likely won’t fall until the end of the year. Plastic is a production component of countless products, from PVC pipes used in building new homes to the hundreds of thousands of disposable coffee cups that are purchased daily.

If you are facing such struggles, QAD’s MSW/PSW functionality (Master Scheduling Workbench / Production Scheduling Workbench) is a robust and capable planning tool for handling shortages and maximizing the use of the resources you do have. MSW/PSW is a daily-use tool that can be leveraged to analyze hour-by-hour changes, not only in the face of a crisis such as the Texas Freeze, but also during a shortage of any kind. This functionality enables you to see various QAD features and data in one toolset, allowing you to see where you can most efficiently allocate available resources to maximize the consumer benefit and minimize waste.

Some of the key benefits of QAD’s MSW/PSW functionality include:

 

Forward-Looking

If you receive information about a change in your supply chain, such as a delayed delivery date of a production component or a loss of labor due to illness, you can input this new data and see how it affects future production. The software provides warnings (red and yellow flags) that will alert you to issues with future production line plans so that you can reallocate resources and labor accordingly.

Simulation Opportunity

Based on new and changing information about your supply chain, you can analyze potential new production schedules and order groupings before you apply them to live data. This allows you to test hypothetical situations given a set of constraints to determine what is plausible and efficient before making actual changes to schedules.

Adjust to Labor Needs

If you face a labor gap due to unavailable employees, you can use the tool to adjust your scheduling and reallocate labor, based on crew type and size.

Ability to View Alternatives

Production scheduling needs are dynamic, particularly during crises that cause scarcity and price spikes of crucial materials. The MSW/PSW tool helps alleviate these issues by allowing you to view replacement components and alternate methods of production.

Prioritize Key Customers/Orders

If you are concerned about filling an important order first, MSW/PSW gives you the capability to sort and group based upon priorities (customer, items) setup in the system. This allows you to focus on allocating resources and maintaining feasible production resources for the top priority group before moving on the next priority group, ensuring that your most important customers are taken care of.

Next Steps

If you are interested in learning more about MSW/PSW and/or maximizing the use of QAD for production scheduling, contact us here to find out how we can help you grow your business. You can also email us at info@loganconsulting.com or call (312) 345-8810.



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