Delays in the delivery of raw materials, project extensions—these are familiar challenges in today's world. Even as a prefab builder, you can encounter these obstacles in project-driven production of timber frame construction, facade, or concrete elements.
Moreover, speed plays a crucial role in the prefab industry. Prefab elements shorten the overall construction process. These elements are prepared in advance in the factory, leading to faster construction. Timely delivery of elements is essential to achieve this acceleration of the construction process. A tight schedule is therefore crucial.
Having overview and insight into your production planning is of paramount importance, especially in the world of prefab elements. Why is this so important? With a good production planning, you gain insight into your capacity, optimize the use of your machinery and personnel, and ensure that you can react proactively.
Most common planning challenges in prefab companies
Due to the increasing demand for prefab construction, scheduling becomes busier and more crowded. This poses challenges in production planning. The most common planning challenges include:
- Lack of insight into capacity
- Lack of overview of agreed delivery dates
- Lack of insight into project statuses
To maintain speedy delivery, it's crucial to address these challenges proactively. Want to know how to solve/prevent these challenges? Keep reading.
How vPlan can help you with your prefab production planning
With vPlan, you can tackle your planning challenges so that you can continue to deliver quickly and keep your customers satisfied. But how does it work? Let's explain it using the fictional company 'Houtskeletbouw Prefab B.V.':
Let your prefab project go through different processes
A smooth production process saves time on-site. Set up your own production process in vPlan based on your specific workflow. The company "Houtskeletbouw Prefab B.V." goes through the following process steps: drafting, preparation, production, transportation, and assembly. Determine for each project which stages it needs to go through. This way, you can see exactly in which stage a project is located.
In vPlan, there are many possibilities. You can customize it as you wish. This way, you create overview for everyone," stated Patrick Looper, the planning manager at Hetebrij Prefab.
Get insight into the capacity of your employees and machines
Understanding your capacity is crucial when scheduling new projects. By linking your employees and/or machines to your projects, vPlan visualizes the capacity immediately. Within vPlan, you can view the capacity per employee or machine, per day or over a period. This way, you can see exactly where you can schedule another project and never overbook. Avoid promises that cannot be kept!
Checking the status of your projects
By using statuses, you have real-time insight into the status of your projects. Determine which statuses you want to use, such as: Open, In Progress, Quality Control, and Completed. This way, you always have insight into the status of your projects, without having to constantly visit the work floor.
Take into account your delivery date
Agreements are agreements, and therefore vPlan clearly shows when the delivery date of your project is. Fill in the expiration date, and you'll see exactly until when your project can run without exceeding this expiration date. If the end date of the project is later than the expiration date, vPlan alerts you by outlining the strip in red. This way, you always schedule projects on time and avoid delays in construction.
Integrate vPlan with your ERP system
By integrating your ERP system with vPlan, you can automatically transfer data, eliminating the need for double data entry. It's possible to automatically transfer customer information, pre-calculations, employee availability, and much more to vPlan. Additionally, you can send data from vPlan such as time registrations and statuses back to your ERP system. This helps prevent errors caused by manual work! After all, you wouldn't want incorrect dimensions due to a typo.
Collect all your data within a project
Choose which data you want to add to a project. There are many possibilities, such as adding customer information, measurements, and a checklist. Once your project is completed, add a photo of the elements before they are transported.
View the planning from different perspectives
vPlan offers four different views: list view, calendar view, kanban view, and timeline. You can easily switch between these views and add useful filters to tailor the display to your preferences. This allows you to precisely visualize what matters to you, whether it's tracking statuses, delivery dates, or capacity. For viewing long-term projects, the timeline is particularly useful as it provides a comprehensive overview of when a project starts and ends. If you prefer a list of tasks that need immediate attention, the list view is ideal. Additionally, you can choose whether you want to view the schedule for a week, a day, or a month, making it fully customizable according to your needs.
The vPlan Go app for the shop floor
A plan is incomplete without execution. With vPlan, you can easily and quickly manage your production floor. With vPlan Go, you give your team the ability to handle projects quickly and easily. They can track statuses, record important information, log time, perform quality controls, and communicate. This way, you say goodbye to paper work orders and keep the schedule updated in real-time.
To optimize production and allow more customers to experience the benefits of prefab timber frame construction, a good planning process is crucial. vPlan can be utilized across various processes and industries. Read here about how you can use vPlan for your production planning and here about how to create a good construction planning.
Create your free demo environment here to experience how vPlan can help you in planning the production of timber frame construction elements.