Good judgement, too many options
Planners know their line better than any software, but nobody can compare every possible run order by hand, so rules of thumb fill the gap.
01
Why mathematics, not guesswork
Optimisation doesn't guess. Every saving is a sum you can check, every plan is re-checked against your rules before you see it, and anything we don't know is labelled as unknown.
Fluent, fast, unchecked
Useful for drafting and summarising. They predict likely text, so an answer can read well and still break a rule, or quote a figure nobody calculated.
Your rules, your costs, worked out
Your rules become constraints and your costs become a sum to make as small as possible.
- Every saving written out as arithmetic
- Every plan re-checked by a separate rule check
- Risk measured by simulation, not assumed
- Called "the cheapest plan found", never "optimal", unless proven
A cornerstone of the method
Theory of Constraints
The idea
A line's output is set by one station, its bottleneck. An hour lost there is an hour lost for the whole line; an hour saved at a station with spare time saves money, not output.
How we find your bottleneck station
We compare the work each station has to do with the time it really has, week by week. The station with the least to spare is your bottleneck. Takt time, the pace your demand sets, is one of the checks we use.
How it shapes the plan
The five focusing steps below guide the plan: fewer changeovers at the bottleneck station, a buffer that protects it, and work released at its pace (drum-buffer-rope). When the bottleneck moves, the report names the new one.
- IdentifyFind the bottleneck station
- ExploitWaste none of its time
- SubordinatePace everything else to it
- ElevateAdd capacity only when proven
- RepeatWhen the bottleneck moves
The bottleneck tells ModelWeave where to focus. The plan itself is chosen on your operating costs (changeovers, late orders, stock, labour and overtime), and output through the bottleneck station is shown next to it.
Why it matters
Where the money goes on a production line
Most of the cost a planner can influence sits in four places. None of them shows up as a single line in the accounts, which is why they are easy to live with.
Hours spent switching, not making
Every switch stops the station, and a full clean also uses water, chemicals, energy and product. At the constraint, those hours come straight off the line's throughput.
Schedule optimisation finds a cheaper run order.
Penalties, expediting and goodwill
Retailers fine late or short deliveries, and a late order often drags others with it. The cost is real even when no one invoices it.
Schedule optimisation weighs lateness against changeovers.
Cash waiting on the floor
Work released too early queues between stations. It ties up cash and space, and food products lose shelf life while they wait.
Inventory buffer optimisation sets stock levels and release times.
Premium hours the plan may not need
Overtime often covers time lost elsewhere, and rosters built by hand rarely match each shift to the work that actually needs doing.
Workforce optimisation builds a roster within your rest rules.
02
What's costing you most?
Pick what sounds familiar and we'll suggest the modules. Change the ticks as you like: the panel shows what you would upload, what you get back, and an example result.
1What sounds familiar?
2Your modules
Schedule optimisation
One reportYou upload
- Orders, with your MRP plan if you have it (optional columns)
- Process steps
- Changeover times
- Shifts and planned downtime
- Work stations file (optional)
You get back
- The bottleneck station, week by week
- Your report in plain language, and in Excel
- A cheaper run order, with planned starts and finishes
- Changeover and lateness costs, against your plan
- A breakdown test of both plans
Example resultIllustrative
| Changeovers at the filler | 19 → 11 a week |
|---|---|
| Late-delivery penalties | £35,000 a year lower |
| Waste and cleaning, from fewer changeovers | £51,360 a year lower |
| Yearly effect on profit | £86,360 |
Figures from our illustrative example, Kettle & Co Foods. Your results depend on your line and your data.
Tick at least one module to see what you would upload and get back.
Request access for this module
Takes you to a short request form; your picks come with you.
03
From your files to a plan you can defend
No integration project. You upload the spreadsheets you already keep; ModelWeave matches the columns and you confirm them.
Upload
Orders, process steps, changeovers and shifts, as CSV or Excel. A template sits beside every upload.
Model
ModelWeave builds your line: each station's own calendar, efficiency and downtime, in real clock time.
Optimise
ModelWeave searches for the cheapest plan it can find in the time allowed.
Stress-test
The plan runs through many simulated weeks with breakdowns, so you see the risk as well as the saving.
Check and explain
An independent check re-verifies every rule. The report writes out every saving as a sum.
04
How we label every figure
Each statement in a ModelWeave report says how we know it. If a claim can't be backed, we don't make it.
Proven
Worked out by arithmetic from your data.
Order 1042 cannot be on time: its material arrives too late for the hours it needs.
Measured
From simulating your line through many weeks with breakdowns.
Every order on time in 71% of simulated weeks.
Tested
An alternative was tried, and we say which rule decided it.
Grouping by allergen first was tried: it cost more in late orders.
Unknown
Your data doesn't say, so we don't pretend it does.
Material dates were not uploaded, so material is assumed available.
Default
ModelWeave's own setting, used where your files are blank.
Repair time at Capping: 30 minutes, a ModelWeave default.
The example sentences are illustrative. In your report they use your orders, stations and figures.
Your data, your trial
Files never stored
Files you upload are never retained or stored: they're held in memory while you work and cleared when you sign out.
Worker data by code
Worker data uses codes, never names.
Invitation only
No public sign-up. Every account is set up by us, for a business email address. Your email address is used only for your account and to reply to you, and is never sold or shared.
Free trial
- 14 days
- every module
- 3 runs
- per module, sample-data runs not counted
- 50 orders
- per run