PACE (Production And Circulation Engine)
PACE (Production and Circulation Engine) is a scheduling tool designed for a single drop setting where production imposes constraints on when feed is available for delivery. By providing two simultaneous schedules, one for distribution indicating loads and vehicles, and another for production showing products, quantities and times feed is necessary, PACE helps the two ends of a feed mill work together more smoothly.
PACE provides cost-efficient driver and production schedules. PACE satisfies:
- Customer requirements (i.e.priority,single load,delivery day/time and vehicle restrictions)
- Truck capacity constraints (including capacity reduction for border crossings)
- Fleet maintenance requirements (alerts when vehicle requires maintenance)
- Production efficiency (plans driver schedules with production in mind to avoid bottle necking in the production process)
(Estimated to reduce running costs by 10%.)
Typical Daily Workflow
- 12:00 All orders for the next day, current stock levels and vehicle availabilities are fed into the PACE system
- 12:30 PACE creates routes for each driver minimising distance traveled,maximising truck utilisation
- 12.30 PACE creates production schedule minimising turnaround time for reloading of vehicles
- 23:00-06:00 Trucks are pre-loaded
- 06:00-06:00 Drivers follow the routes during the day and production follows schedule
- 08:00 The truck positions during the day are downloaded back into the system and analyzed. Reports on the days performance are generated automatically
Background Data
- Customer and Product Data are fed into PACE automatically from the invoicing system.
- Vehicle and Driver Data are entered manually.
Daily Data
- Fleet configurations are identified and stored on a daily basis.
- Predicted stock levels are captured.
- Jobs to be delivered are imported from the invoicing system.
Pre-Scheduler
- Scheduler parameters can be adjusted to suit specific needs
- Run the pre-scheduler
- Once the schedule is run, all information needed during the working day can be obtained from the main screen
More Features
- PACE interfaces with real time tracking systems to allow for automatic updating of the Gantt chart to show current vehicle status (eg running late) – this allows for early detection of possible scheduling problems and gives production the opportunity to adjust if necessary - current systems are Matrix, Orchid, C- Track and Cellocator
- PACE is able to identify vehicle status’ as having just left the yard or entering the yard
- on entering the yard, a visual is updated to show the vehicle is in the yard
- on leaving the yard, the system will flag the vehicle as having left and wait for the operator to clear the departure – upon departure clearance an sms can be sent to the customer with an expected arrival time and a description of the load.
Reporting
PACE has various management and operational reports, which can be customised to suit the needs of specific implementations. Various site specific reports can be written to supply information required.
