Plant Manager - An unbeatable solution for your production, planning and control requirements Production is at the heart of any manufacturing company, and it drives most other functions, including planning and control. Production, planning and control involves scheduling of work, assigning the work to machines and people, and designing how the actual work will flow through the entire system. In todays’ business environment, small and medium enterprises in the manufacturing industry are faced with challenges, especially in the pre- production phase, which includes inadequate capacity planning and uncontrolled delays during the engineering phase. Also, most SME’s do not have the resources to capture, control and tweak their production cycles for maximum utilization of resources. The most commonly used methods of maintaining planning and production data by SME’s, comprises of capturing the data manually, or entering it in a software. The software though quite advanced, are not specifically designed for PPC. Some of them like ERP/SAP, are not only expensive, they are focused on other business areas rather than planning and micro scheduling. Keeping these things in mind, CNCTimes.com designed and developed Plant Manager software. Plant Manager was developed keeping in mind the “Theory of Constraints” and is a powerful tool that has rich features. It provides the small and medium enterprises with the necessary tools to capture essential shop floor data, and help them make informed decisions based on the reports. The work on Plant Manager started in the year 2014. The in-house subject matter experts at CNCTimes.com put their heads together with the development team, to conceptualize and develop the software. The beta testing of the software was done at customer location, which was very successful. Plant Manager was launched in April 2016, in Pune, India and has already received rave reviews for its ingenuity, ease of use and affordability. Today, more than 25 customers are successfully using the software at their factory locations. Plant Manager Android app was launched in October 2016. The app is an anytime, anywhere “eye” for the shop floor, where one can get production reports on any android device. Companies can also use an internet activated device, which when attached with a VGA cable to TV screens, can broadcast the real-time production status on big screen TV’s, across the shop floor. CNCTimes.com plans to triple the number of Plant Manager customers in the coming financial year. The company is focused on adding new features to Plant Manager, which will make it easy to integrate it with SAP, so that it can be used by a multitude of companies that are already using SAP. Today, Industrie 4.0 and IOT are a reality however, SME’s are still struggling with digitization. The company’s vision is to change the way planning, production and control is done in most companies.

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Table of Contents
1. INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................................................... 4
2. WHAT IS PLANT MANAGER? ................................................................................................................. 5
3. FEATURES OF PLANT MANAGER............................................................................................................ 5
4. INSTALLING PLANT MANAGER.............................................................................................................. 5
5. COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF COMMONLY USED METHODS FOR RECORDING PLANNING AND
SCHEDULING DATA WITH PLANT MANAGER ............................................................................................. 6
6. BENEFITS OF PLANT MANAGER............................................................................................................. 8
7. PLANT MANAGER SOFTWARE............................................................................................................... 9
7.1 Dashboard .........................................................................................................................................9
7.2 Machine Masters.............................................................................................................................. 10
7.3 Select Machines ............................................................................................................................... 11
7.4 Daily Production Input...................................................................................................................... 12
8. PLANT MANAGER MOBILE APPLICATION............................................................................................. 13
8.1 Dashboard ....................................................................................................................................... 13
8.2 Job Card Status report ...................................................................................................................... 14
8.3 Order Status Graph........................................................................................................................... 14
8.4 Order Status Report ......................................................................................................................... 15
8.5 TV Display on the Shop Floor ............................................................................................................ 16
INDEX.................................................................................................................................................... 17
TABLE OF FIGURES ................................................................................................................................... 3

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Table of Figures
Figure 1 Plant Manager Dashboard..................................................................................................................... 9
Figure 2 Resource (machine) details ................................................................................................................. 10
Figure 3 Select Machines................................................................................................................................... 11
Figure 4 Daily Production Input......................................................................................................................... 12
Figure 5 Dashboard ........................................................................................................................................... 13
Figure 6 Job Card Status Report ........................................................................................................................ 14
Figure 7 Order status graph............................................................................................................................... 14
Figure 8 Order Status Report............................................................................................................................. 15
Figure 9 Internet activated device..................................................................................................................... 16

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1. Introduction
This document is a short introduction to the software Plant Manager. It contains the following
information:
 What is Plant Manager?
 Features of Plant Manager
 Comparative analysis of commonly used methods for recording planning and scheduling
data with Plant Manager
 Benefits of Plant Manager
 Software specifications
 Images of the software screens
 Details of Plant Manager Android app

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2. What is Plant Manager?
Keeping in mind the problems faced by the manufacturing industry, especially on the shop floor
and to have more control over production, planning and scheduling, CNCTimes.com has developed
a software called Plant Manager.
 Offers finite capacity planning and scheduling capability
 Provides greater visibility & control over manufacturing processes on a day to day basis
 Minimizes throughput time
 Helps to manage resources optimally
 A cloud based software
3. Features of Plant Manager
 Multiple operation capability of a workstation can be defined into the system
 Daily production capacities for different operations or combination of operations can be
defined for a workstation
 Multiple resources for single operation can be defined
 Sequence of operations for a raw material to convert it into a finished product can be
defined
 Vendors, their resources, and respective production capacities can be defined
 Human resource can be defined as individual work station
4. Installing Plant Manager
 Plant Manager is offered as Software as a service (SaaS). SaaS is a software licensing and
delivery model in which software is licensed on a subscription basis and is centrally hosted.
 Plant Manager is hosted at Amazon Cloud. It needs IIS server and a SQL server for Database.
 Plant Manager allows every customer to have their own Database so that read/write access
is private and secure.
 Plant Manager is developed using ASP.Net technology

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5. Comparative analysis of commonly used methods for
recording planning and scheduling data with Plant Manager
There are various methods of maintaining planning and scheduling data. The most commonly used
are mentioned in the following table along with their characteristics.
Parameters Log Book MS Excel document ERP/SAP Plant Manager
Data input
method
Handwritten Manual input Manual Manual/MS Excel
import
Safety of data Possibility of
losing data
Possibility of losing data Data is
relatively safe
Data is safe on the
cloud
Data backup No backup Can be backed up on the
local computer
Backup on
local
computer
Data can be backed
up on local
computer (on
demand)/cloud
Reports No instant
reports.
No instant report.
Need manual calculations
to get results
Instant reports Instant reports
Pricing Inexpensive Inexpensive Very
Expensive
Affordable/ monthly
subscription
Data interrelation No interrelation
of data
No interrelation of data Data is
interrelated
Data is interrelated
Maintenance of
data
Tedious process Tedious process Relatively
simpler
Simple
Training needs Does not require
trained
manpower
Does not require trained
manpower
Requires
trained
manpower to
operate
Requires trained
manpower to
operate
Data
interpretation
Drawing
inference from
the data is
difficult
Drawing inference from the
data is difficult
Focused on
other business
areas rather
than planning
and micro
scheduling
Reports and
conclusions are
easily generated

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Parameters Log Book MS Excel
document
ERP/SAP Plant Manager
Calculations Need manual
calculations to
get results
Need
manual
calculations
to get results
Difficult to get
accurate shop
floor data
Easy to get accurate
shop floor data
Usage Was used
extensively
before
computers
became
common
Is used
extensively
but is not
tailored for
storing shop
floor data
Not used
commonly for
storing shop
floor data
Only designed for storing
shop floor data
Implementation Not Applicable Not
Applicable
Implementation
takes a lot of
time
Implementation is easy
and quick
Table 1 Comparative analysis of different methods of recording planning and production data

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6. Benefits of Plant Manager
Improve productivity on the shop floor
 Get correct data from your shop floor
 Reduce churn in production plans
 Greater visibility & control over manufacturing processes
Improve resource (Machine/Personnel) utilization
 Optimally utilize all your machines
 Get shift wise plans for each operator
 Get real time information on all activities
Save Time and Money
 Plan / Re-plan efficiently within seconds
 Productivity improvement – deliver on time
 Save costs on the shop floor
Grow Your Business
 Optimally utilized machines and operators
 Maximize production accuracy
 Improved planning, budgeting, and productivity

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7. Plant Manager Software
7.1 Dashboard
The Plant Manager dashboard gives an overview of the status of current orders. The order status
report shows the orders that are in time and orders that have become overdue.
The graph provides a visual representation of the percentage of completed orders with respect to
job card number.
Figure 1 Plant Manager Dashboard
Total orders
Completed orders
Pending orders
Planned orders
In-process orders
Scheduled orders
Total number of
machines
Total number of
products
KEY FEATURES
Order
Status
Report
Percentage
of completed
orders with
respect to job
card number.

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7.2 Machine Masters
The Machine Master section includes details about
 Machine Capability – Describes the machine process
 Machine Details – Provides information on
1. Machine capacity – which can be assigned manually or using capacity calculator
2. Days/shifts of working
3. Machine description - Whether it is a normal or lot machine
4. Allows you to assign capabilities to machine
 Machine Maintenance – Provides information on machine maintenance interval
Figure 2 Resource (machine) details
Machine
Capability
Machine Details
1) Machine
Capacity
2) Shifts
3) Machine
description
4) Assign machine
capabilities
Machine
Maintenance
KEY FEATURES

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7.3 Select Machines
You can assign machines in the Select Machines screen, after the details, and the order of the
product to be manufactured have been added.
You can also do the following procedures using the Select Machines screen.
 Select multiple machines for a single process
 Add setup time for a machine
 Assign process dependency for all processes
Figure 3 Select Machines
Assign Machines
Multiple machines
for a single
process
Assign machine
setup time
Assign process
dependency
KEY FEATURES

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7.4 Daily Production Input
You can add real time data of the shop floor through Daily Production Input screen.
You can add the following information using the Daily Production Input screen.
 Production quantity
 Inspection quantity
 Machine downtime
Figure 4 Daily Production Input
Add real-time shop
floor data
Add
1) production
quantity
2) Inspection
quantity
3) Machine
downtime
KEY FEATURES

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8. Plant Manager Mobile Application
Plant Manager has an Android app that allows you to see the following data
1. Quick view summary reports
2. Production data entry
The Plant Manager Android app is an anytime, anywhere “eye” on your shop floor which can be
viewed through reports on your android device.
8.1 Dashboard
Gives an overview of the status of orders and the summary of all orders and different processes.
Figure 5 Dashboard

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8.2 Job Card Status report
The Job Card Status Report provides information of on-time/delayed orders, its delivery date and
expected completion date.
Figure 6 Job Card Status Report
8.3 Order Status Graph
This screen displays the percentage of completed orders with respect to job card
Figure 7 Order status graph

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8.4 Order Status Report
This screen displays the percentage of completed order quantity and the current status.
Figure 8 Order Status Report

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8.5 TV Display on the Shop Floor
You can broadcast the real-time production status on big screen TV’s across the shop floor by using
the below internet activated device that can be attached with a VGA cable to TV screens. You can
display the following
1. Daily schedule on TV on shop floor
2. Order status on TV on shop floor
Figure 9 Internet activated device

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INDEX
A
Amazon Cloud, 4
ASP.Net technology, 4
C
cloud based software, 4
D
Daily Production Input, 11
F
finite capacity, 4
G
Greater visibility, 7
I
Instant reports, 5
internet activated device, 15
J
Job Card Status Report, 13
M
Machine Capability, 9
Machine Details, 9
Machine Maintenance, 9
O
Order Status Report, 14
P
Plan / Re-plan, 7
Plant Manager Mobile Application, 12
process dependency, 10
R
real-time production status, 15
S
SaaS, 4
T
TV Display on the Shop Floor, 15

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