FactoryBooster · Production scheduling & decision support
The capacity is there on paper. So why are orders still late?
FactoryBooster is software for manufacturers with complex production. It helps you understand what is holding work back and build a production plan your team can execute.
Coordinate machines, people, materials and the work between processing steps—so daily priorities, delivery promises and capacity decisions reflect how your factory actually runs.
Less expediting. Clearer priorities. More reliable output.
Works alongside your existing ERP—even when maintenance or material planning still runs in spreadsheets.
Your challenges
Does this look familiar?
The plan keeps breaking.
Absences, downtime and changing priorities send planners back to their spreadsheets.
Work piles up between stations.
Finding out what is waiting, and where, takes calls, walks and manual updates.
The bottleneck keeps moving.
Improving one busy station fails to deliver the increase in total output you expected.
Urgent orders need an escort.
Experienced people spend their day pushing critical work through production.
Delivery promises involve guesswork.
Sales needs an answer while planning reconstructs what is possible.
More capacity is a difficult bet.
Another machine or shift might help, but the effect on total output is unclear.
These symptoms can reveal a gap between the factory your plan assumes and the factory your team has to run.
A production example
The machine has finished. Why is the next station still waiting?
In production using CNC machines, such as specialist tool manufacturing, an operator may cover machines across different areas or leave to collect stock and materials. Completed work can remain inside a machine. It may be unclear whether moving it will keep a time-critical order on track or simply place it in the next buffer to wait.
FactoryBooster makes that priority explicit. It connects the order’s next steps and delivery commitments with expected cycle completion and operator availability, then tells the operator which work to unload and move, and when.
The plan accounts for what must happen before the next operation can start. FactoryBooster models these activities and dependencies down to seconds and minutes where the decision requires it.
Use cases
One Factory Imprint. Multiple decisions.
Start with the decision that matters to your team.
Planning managers & production teams
How do we keep today’s production on track?
Coordinate what each station and shift should work on next. Adapt the sequence when availability or priorities change, with planners able to handle exceptions.
Plant managers & operations leaders
Where will production get stuck next?
See where work is waiting today and anticipate constraints in the weeks ahead. Compare resource allocations and feasible changes to processing times before deciding how to respond.
Sales, planning & operations
Can we accept this urgent order?
Assess when a quick-turnaround order could finish and which existing commitments it would affect before deciding what to promise.
Sales & customer service
When can we deliver this order?
Get a delivery estimate based on current workload and production constraints, without repeatedly asking planners to reconstruct the schedule.
Operations, management & finance
Would another machine or shift actually help?
Compare equipment, staffing and shift scenarios. Understand their expected effect on output and delivery before building the investment case.
The same Factory Imprint connects today’s orders with tomorrow’s opportunities. ERP orders and production data anchor short-term planning; further ahead, the sales pipeline from your CRM and demand forecasts from other planning tools become key inputs.
How it works
A production model your team can put to work
FactoryBooster builds a model of how work moves through your factory: what can run, when, in what order and which resources must be available. We call this your Factory Imprint.
Represent the way work happens
Connect machines, people and skills, materials, buffers and process steps—including handling, inspections and other activities that affect the next operation.
Calculate a feasible sequence
Simulation and mathematical optimization evaluate work sequences against those constraints and your production priorities. The result supports operator tasks, delivery estimates and capacity comparisons.
Adapt as production changes
Reported progress, changed availability and revised priorities feed replanning. Planners can intervene when needed, and operators receive updated work priorities.
Your process may depend on different details
Rack loading and dwell times in surface treatment. Compatible batches sharing a furnace or autoclave. Fixtures and recipe-dependent cycles in coating.
These details determine which jobs can run together, which resources they need and when the next operation can start. Bring us the rules that determine your process so we can assess the modelling needed.
For every team
One production model. The right view for each team.
Planners and managers
Understand, plan and improve
Look ahead to next week’s constraints, compare resource and process changes, and decide how production should adapt. Use the resulting plan to guide daily execution, with the ability to investigate issues and revise plans as conditions change
Sales
Give customers a grounded answer
A dedicated web app provides delivery estimates and helps assess urgent orders against the current production plan, including their effect on existing commitments.
Operators
Know what to do next
A dedicated web app shows which task to perform and when—including processing, unloading and transport—so each person’s work supports the wider production plan.
Customer experience · PCB manufacturing
From chasing orders to seeing what needs attention
At a European printed circuit board manufacturer, more than half of orders were being delivered late. Planners built schedules while expediters pushed urgent work through the plant. Understanding where orders were waiting required manual investigation.
With FactoryBooster, operators receive clear work priorities, managers can see stalled orders in dashboards, and sales can obtain delivery estimates. Planners adapt the schedule as production conditions change.
Late deliveries became infrequent, production became more transparent, and teams relied less on guesswork.
FactoryBooster supports an ongoing transformation combining new machinery, training and operational improvements. Its analysis helps the team assess further changes and adapt production plans to make better use of the capacity those investments create.
Is it a fit?
Built for production that is difficult to coordinate
FactoryBooster is particularly relevant when these conditions lead to persistent lateness, excessive work in progress or constant manual intervention:
- Many simultaneous orders, high product variety or changing batch sizes.
- Shared machines, skilled people and auxiliary resources.
- Multiple routes, inspections, handling or sequence-dependent work.
- Frequent disruptions and changing priorities.
Similar production challenges across industries
These combinations of shared resources, process constraints and variable work occur in:
Surface treatment
Electroplating, anodizing and chemical processing.
Thermal processing
Heat treatment, brazing and composite autoclaves.
Specialist coating
Processes with constrained fixtures, compatible loads and recipe-dependent cycles.
Precision manufacturing
Specialist processes for aerospace, defense and medical-device components.
The starting point is your production process: what can run together, what must happen in sequence and where work has to wait.
Your starting point may be ERP and spreadsheets, or an existing planning system that still leaves difficult decisions to your team. If your current approach already delivers dependable plans and commitments, the value of an additional system may be limited.
Beyond ERP and spreadsheets
When ERP and spreadsheets need a more connected production model
ERP systems organize orders, materials and business transactions. Spreadsheets give planners flexibility. Experienced people supply practical knowledge.
Coordination becomes harder when one change affects many other decisions. A qualified operator is unavailable, a buffer fills up or an urgent job competes for shared resources. Each change can alter when other orders will finish.
The useful question is how reliably your current approach represents those dependencies and recalculates their effects as conditions change.
Getting started
Start with the data you have
You do not need a perfectly structured database to get started. FactoryBooster is designed to work with incomplete, inconsistent and scattered production data, including maintenance and material plans kept in spreadsheets. We combine available records with your planners’ and operators’ knowledge, resolving the gaps that matter as the model is put to work.
From existing records to a working Factory Imprint
Reuse available data
Draw on your existing systems and spreadsheets for machines, stations, departments, known restrictions, worker skills, shifts, maintenance schedules and historical work orders. Past orders help identify missing constraints and improve data.
Check the model against history
Compare simulated production with what actually happened. Where they differ, interview planners and operators to uncover missing rules and resolve inconsistencies.
Refine as use grows
Repeat the interviews, model updates and historical checks over several rounds as FactoryBooster is introduced into daily work. The aim is to improve the model and help the factory make more of its available capacity.
Resources
Make the case inside your organization
Why good production plans break
A practical guide to where ERP, spreadsheets and manual coordination work well—and when a more connected production model becomes useful.
For innovation leads, planners and operations sponsors.
Before you add another machine or shift
A worksheet for identifying the real constraint, comparing resource scenarios and gathering evidence for a capacity decision.
For operations leaders, management and finance.
FAQ
Practical questions
How does FactoryBooster work with our ERP, CRM, MES or APS?
FactoryBooster complements existing business systems. We establish which data they can provide and which production decisions need additional support. If you already use advanced planning and scheduling software, we examine the unresolved problems and agree how responsibilities should be divided.
Could we solve this with a better spreadsheet?
Spreadsheets can work well for manageable constraints and infrequent changes. The need for additional support grows when your team repeatedly coordinates linked tasks, rebuilds scenarios or corrects plans during execution. The planning guide helps you examine that boundary.
What does our team need to contribute during setup?
Access to relevant system data and time with planners and operators to explain how work is done. We use several rounds of historical checks and interviews to resolve differences between the model and actual production. The factory, available data and selected scope determine the effort required.
How are delivery estimates kept relevant?
Estimates reflect the workload, constraints and production information represented in the model. Updated progress, availability and priorities support reassessment as conditions change. Data freshness affects the estimate, and unexpected disruptions can change the delivery outcome.
What happens to existing commitments when an urgent order arrives?
FactoryBooster evaluates the new work against the current plan, showing an estimated completion date and the effect on other orders. Sales and operations can weigh those consequences before accepting the commitment.
Can our planners change the sequence?
Yes. Planners can revise priorities or direct a different sequence when needed. Reported execution and updated conditions feed subsequent replanning.
Let’s talk
Bring us one production challenge
An order that needed constant expediting. A machine that finished while the next station waited. An investment whose effect on output is unclear.
In a 30-minute conversation, we will examine the situation and your current approach. Together, we can identify the decision worth investigating, the information needed and whether a focused FactoryBooster assessment makes sense.
Carlos Ayala Jiménez
Telefon: +49 1516 2 60 74 21
E-Mail:
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