Asprova enables visual management by displaying the results of scheduling graphically on the screen in the form of a Gantt chart. You can see at a glance the schedule stretching from the current state of the shop floor to several months in the future, making possible quick and accurate delivery date quotations. Furthermore, by monitoring the future schedule, you can take necessary measures ahead of time to prevent late deliveries. Visually identifying bottleneck resources also enables you to increase overall throughput, while monitoring the load on equipment enables you to improve the efficiency of your capital investments by determining the optimal plan for increasing production capacity.

1. Ultrafast Scheduling Logic

The current generation of the Asprova software “Asprova2003” is even faster than its predecessor Asprova Ver9 — 4 times as fast when scheduling 100,000 operations. This speed enables you to shorten your planning cycle so as to be able to quickly confirm the latest state of the shop floor as it changes from moment to moment.

2. Resource Gantt Chart

Displays a Gantt chart organized by resource (machine, worker, tooling, etc.). Displays the scheduled work for each resource to several months in the future to a precision of one second, realizing “visual management” for each resource.

2-1. Detailed Display of Narrow Operations and Overlapping Operations

Overlapping operations and narrow operations are difficult to confirm visually on the resource Gantt chart. Asprova allows you to perform a drilldown on a specified region on the resource Gantt chart, displaying each operation assigned to that region on a separate row. This makes it easy to visually confirm the assignment of even overlapping operations or narrow operations.

2-2. Moving Operations with the Keyboard

Overlapping operations and narrow operations are difficult to select and move with the mouse. Asprova allows you to select and move operations using either the mouse or the keyboard, making it easy to select and move even overlapping or narrow operations.

2-3. Day of the Week Zoom Factor and Visible Times of Day

On the order Gantt chart and resource Gantt chart, you can specify detailed settings regarding the days of week and time periods of interest to you. For example, you can “display Saturday at 50% the normal width and Sunday at 30% the normal width, and only show the period of 8:00 to 17:00 on each day”. In this way, you are able to display more relevant information on the screen at one time, improving the efficiency of your visual management.

3. Order Gantt Chart

Displays a Gantt chart organized by order. You can drill down to display hierarchically the operations corresponding the processes under each order, and drill down further to display the setup, production, teardown, and other tasks under each operation, realizing “visual management” for each order. By looking at this chart, you can discover orders that are likely to run late according to the schedule, and take measures ahead-of-time to complete each order by its due date.

3-1. Gantt Chart Incorporating a Table View

An order table view is incorporated into each order Gantt chart. This makes it easy for you to confirm and modify settings while using the Gantt chart. A table view is also incorporated into each resource Gantt chart, load graph, inventory graph, and production lead time graph.

4. Load Graph

Displays a graph of how the load on each resource changes over time. Using this graph, you can visually confirm the future load on each resource. You can use this information to reduce labor costs by increasing or decreasing the number of available workers ahead-of-time to match the expected workload, and you can increase overall throughput by visually identifying the bottleneck resources.

5. Inventory Graph

Displays a graph of how inventory levels for each item change over time in terms of quantity or monetary value. Using this graph, you can visually confirm how inventory quantities of each item will change in the future. You can also display a graph of past inventory levels to evaluate numerically the degree to which you succeeded in reducing inventory in terms of quantity or monetary value after deploying Asprova.

6. Composite Gantt Chart

From the order Gantt chart, you can select an order and jump to a composite Gantt chart consisting of an order Gantt chart for the selected order and a resource Gantt chart for all resources related to that order. Using this chart, you can simultaneously confirm both the flow of the processes of the selected order and the loads on the related resources. If an order is expected to run late according to the current schedule, for example, you can visually determine which resource is responsible for the lateness. This Jump feature is also available for the resource Gantt Chart, order table, and the object window, enabling you to check the status of each order at once.

Visual Management