Dairy Production

Production & Filling

Operative Planning vs. Perishability

ORSOFT Manufacturing Workbench as a pre-configured functional solution for dairy production provides a functional scope especially designed for the industry sector that assists the priority objective of production planning: finding an optimized compromise between limited shelf life and maximum capacity utilization.

Processing perishable goods requires short production cycles where very restrictive constraints are applied. Additionally, the fact that customer orders are on a rather short-term basis and of comparatively small quantities must be taken into consideration. Due to its perishability, raw milk has to be processed completely at any time while – in order to accomplish timely deliveries – make-to-stock production is only a short-term option. Valid production sequencing is a key factor for efficient production planning because setup and cleaning times have to be considered as well.

ORSOFT Manufacturing Workbench provides specifically maintained mechanisms for the individual planning steps. By setting a mandatory production order in a planning cockpit, ORSOFT Manufacturing Workbench creates a planned order in SAP ERP that already has been allocated to matching production lines. Planning personnel now can specify and modify the order parameters via browsers and cockpits while having a clear visualization of the planning situation in sight. Matching orders can be sequenced via drag & drop, setup times and cleaning cycles are automatically calculated, which helps meet the total utilization of machines. ORSOFT Manufacturing Workbench also provides pre-defined functions like order splitting, re-combination or modification of production quantities.

Bottling and Packaging

As usual in the food industry sector, dairy production is characterized by great product diversity that leads to a vast number of different bottling and packaging processes. Hence, the resourcing of semi-finished goods and feasible allocation is the major planning task – the result has to be centrally available to all responsible shop-floor operators.

ORSOFT Manufacturing Workbench provides planning functions with focus on:

• Distribution of semi-finished products with consideration of customer orders
• Allocation of filling lines
• Production sequencing with consideration of setup times and cleaning cycles

These processes run iteratively. Additional subjects are e.g. pallet and tray formats, minimum shelf life and product labeling. ATP-checks for materials have to be considered because if they are out of stock, orders are initiated and production might be delayed. ORSOFT Manufacturing Workbench also displays cleaning and maintenance processes in order to exclude involved facilities from scheduling.