Preactor

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Who needs Preactor - Companies who require greater control of their operations, increased customer service while reducing costs, Preactor is a production scheduling system that provides the planner with an interactive decision support tool that helps balance demand and capacity. Unlike spreadsheets, wall boards and MRP software, Preactor can deal with the complexities of a wide range of application, has been installed in more than 1,600 companies in 56 countries and has provided users with a ROI measured in weeks.

Pricing - Preactor is not a single product. It represents a family of production scheduling solutions with different levels of functionality and pricing ranging from ‘out of the box’ products such a Preactor Lite that can be purchased for less than $600 to Preactor Enterprise priced at around $100,000, which is attractive to larger corporations rolling out Preactor APS to multiple plants.

Product Selection - We recommend that you contact BCT to assist you in choosing the correct member of the family for your application.

500 - You need Preactor 500 if you can answer yes to any of the following:

Have access to the Preactor BOM exploder to be able to use Preactor to obtain 'Capable to Promise' (CTP) delivery dates on products with a multiple level BOM from within Preactor.
To be able to switch Preactor into 'Auto Order Promise Mode' to allow 'blind' CTP enquiries to be made on a live schedule by sending messages from other Preactor systems (for example a Preactor Viewer) or other applications.

400 - You need Preactor 400 if you can answer yes to any of the following:

Use BOM data structures defined by an MRP or ERP system to peg or allocate materials from one or more producing orders to one or more consuming orders for example in Assemblies
Use pegging rules to define which consuming and producing orders can be linked together
Limit the start of consuming orders based on the completion time of producing orders
Have access to material plots over the period of the schedule
Provide a materials traceability report
Identify and time material shortages
Use complex 'optimization' dispatching production scheduling rules to, for example, introduce preferred color sequencing to minimize set up time, minimize work-in process etc
Create your own unique production scheduling rules

300 - You need Preactor 300 if you can answer yes to any of the following:

Use multiple constraints during the scheduling process e.g. machine and labor etc
Allow multiple jobs on a resource at the same time
Have tanks with defined capacities as a constraint
Use Preactor at a Capacity Planning level (perhaps linked to a Forecasting system and plan months ahead)
Cost by operation and by order based on material, resource and shift pattern
Limit the resources that can be selected based on the previous resource selected
Limit the start of an operation based on its finish time
Limit the start of an operation based on the previous operation start/finish

200 - You need Preactor 200 if you can answer yes to any of the following:

Modify the data tables such as add, rename or remove fields
Add new data tables
Modify the menu structure
Plot the usage of additional resources such as labor, tools etc
Plot the capacity usage of resources and resource groups in hours
Have alternative resources for an operation that has a different run speed
Have set up or changeover times that are sequence dependent
Allow transfer batching between operations (overlapping operations)
To closely integrate and automate data transfer between Preactor and other software packages

100 - You need Preactor 100 if you can answer yes to any of the following:

Have unlimited data table sizes
Have user definable operation and product attributes
Have a Capable-to-promise (CTP) capability
Be able to modify existing and create new Preactor reports
Be able to define import and export routines using the Preactor Wizard
Be able to publish schedules on a web site

Standard Demo Example.aspx
The stand alone example configuration on the CD is designed to show many features of Preactor. It has been set up so that it will run in all versions of Preactor so you can see the differences between one version and another. It runs in ‘Evaluation Mode’ which means it does not need to be activated and can be copied as often as required. The limitation is that it runs ‘in the year 2000’ and will only schedule jobs that have an earliest start date and delivery date in that year. Otherwise there is no limitation on number of resources, jobs, operations etc.

APS-ERP Assembly Example.aspx
This example is typical of a configuration linked to an ERP system. In this case the orders with routing and BoM structure is imported from the ERP system. The BoM structure is used by Preactor to peg orders together using a feature called SMC (Static Material Control). In this way Preactor can take into account the constraints of machines, operators, etc but also the availability of materials, both raw and intermediate when it generates the schedule. The example is based on the manufacture and assembly of different types of bicycle.

Graphical MPS Example.aspx
Preactor Graphical MPS is a capacity planning and stock control example whereby we wish to examine the impact of variable demand on the capacity usage and stock levels of each SKU across more than one plant. Preactor Graphical MPS is not separate product. It is a configeration that will run on Preactor v9.3 licensed for Preactor 300 FCS or Preactor APS.

Minimize Overall Setup.aspx
This example shows how a new rule which is to be released with version 9.3 works. It is similar in some respects to the Preferred Sequence rule. However it is focussed purely on minimizing the setup or changeover time on resources.

More Info - For more information contact BCT ( More... )