Preactor provides exceptionally clear solution for Pilkington Special Glass

Scheduling is a vital component of any glass production process. With the plant operating on a 365x24x7 basis producing thousands of tonnes of glass per year for a specialist product range, Pilkington Special Glass is no exception. However, the company's scheduling requirements are exceptional.

The nature of the glass and products can be unique, as is the process by which much of it is produced. In addition, the markets serviced ' optical, ophthalmic, sunglasses, space and nuclear industries ' are all both lucrative and volatile. When an exceptional scheduling solution was required, Pilkington turned to Preactor International.

Overseeing the project for Pilkington, Logistics Controller Mike Large enthuses, 'Most off-the-shelf systems only offered 50-60% of what I wanted in its basic form. With Preactor in its basic form I got 75%, and after working with RMS, this is up to 95% in the first phase.'

The scheduling problems experienced by Pilkington prior to the Preactor solution affected its whole operation. With regard to raw materials stock handling, a sizeable amount of the glass produced requires costly raw ingredients. Too much stock equates to problems with cashflow. Immediate changes to the schedules were also highly difficult to deal with but required, especially if there was a problem in production. In addition to the considerable production time required for certain glasses, it can take 3-5 working days to change over producing one type of glass to another. The majority of the run-off glass produced during this changeover time is waste, so scheduling mistakes or incapabilities are measured in tens if not hundreds of thousands of pounds over a year.

These problems clearly affect the company's ability to fulfil customer orders. This is further compounded by the nature of some sections of the specialist glass market. Mike highlights one example where a 2 day old urgent order for 30 tonnes of an optical glass had increased overnight to 70 tonnes but still required the same delivery date due to a massive increase in demand in the Far East market. At the other extreme, substantial government contracts may take years of planning, all of which need scheduling into the production capacity of the company. Mike recalls how it used to be done, prior to the Preactor solution. 'The entire scheduling system was paper based. Any changes on the main Gantt Chart to one job meant all the other jobs had to be manually updated. It was not uncommon for a second change to be required before the first change had been even halfway worked through. The scale of the problem becomes even more apparent when you realise that as soon as these changes were finished, the works orders on the floor then had to be manually updated.'

Mike's logistics background ensured that the company's search for an exceptional scheduling solution was a thorough one. Prior to Preactor, a number of large companies were investigated but as Mike says, 'It soon became clear that their solutions were too inflexible for our process environment and far too expensive.' Pilkington even contemplated developing an in-house solution at this time, until they heard about Preactor.

The Preactor solution began with Mike attending a Preactor evaluation day in Chippenham that led him to conclude that he liked the product, the people, and especially the price. What also impressed him was the flexibility of the system, and the willingness of both Preactor and systems integrator Resource Management Systems (RMS), to work with Pilkington to develop a tailored solution that would meet their exacting requirements. Don Dyas, Director of Preactor Solution Provider RMS describes how the solution then progressed. 'The first thing we did was to have 1 day consultation with Pilkington where we helped them draw up a 'wish list'.' With over 5 years specialist integration experience of Preactor systems, Don assessed that the standard product would meet 50% of Pilkington's requirements with a further 25% capable of being met by existing configuration capabilities. The last 25% he concluded would be 'uncharted water for both RMS and Preactor.'

Uncharted water it may have been, but Preactor's flexibility and development skills coupled with RMS's technical expertise enabled the completion of what is now a very customised solution. Mike Large again, 'To a larger company, I would just be an invoice number. Using Preactor and RMS allows much more flexibility and attention with a willingness to develop a solution where previously there has been no such solution.' The actual system installed comprises a Preactor APS system, with 3 Preactor Viewers situated on the plant floor. Any changes made to any schedule can now be viewed instantaneously from the plant floor. Part of the customising work entailed the construction of a one-off data link with Pilkington's UNIX based customer and stock management systems. This allows a real time 2-way flow of data so that any prospective scheduling scenarios automatically generate the required customer and stock information to accompany this, automatically updating when changes on the schedule are actioned.

While this in itself has helped to reduce stock control problems, the reporting facility of Preactor has further smoothed out Supply Chain Management (SCM) issues. Prior to the Preactor solution, any changes in a works order schedule would require an A3 photocopy being taken, and posted to the relevant parties. The Preactor Solution allows any changes made to be generated instantly as a report, and then emailed either direct to the relevant parties, or to a set address accessible to suppliers. Given the hour by hour changes that this industry requires, the time savings and consequent financial savings to Pilkington even in this one area have been substantial. More important still on a long term basis, Pilkington's massively reduced reaction time to production order changes have significantly increased their ability to fulfil delivery promise, and reduce the initial due date in the first place.

Preactor International is understandably proud of the exceptional system in place at Pilkington, and of the integration/installation work carried out by Preactor Solution Provider RMS. Mike Novels, Managing Director of Preactor elaborates, 'Our Open Planning Board? technology ensures that we can tackle very different scheduling problems. Very often, applications in the process industry have both batch and continuous elements and the scheduling system must be able to be customised to meet the unique requirements of the user without huge consulting fees being involved. RMS has a great deal of experience in installing Preactor and this is why they were one of the first partners in the UK to be an accredited Preactor Solution Provider. Comparatively small companies like RMS are very much customer centric. They live on the recommendations of others.'

Views echoed by Mike Large who asserts that the entire Preactor Solution, including all the extensive development work carried out in-house and by RMS, still represents a substantial cost saving over the initial purchase price of the competition. With a further 3 phases planned, Mike concludes, 'The service from RMS and Preactor really has been very good.'