Original Date: 01/24/1994
Revision Date: 01/18/2007

Harris has implemented a fully operational, worldwide production scheduling system called the Integrated Manufacturing Production Requirements Scheduling System (IMPReSS). This System uses MRP and Linear Programming techniques to arrive at an optimal capacity, work in process, and material-feasible production plan.

Prior to the IMPReSS, planning was completed manually and required over a month for each iteration and was ineffective because of its complexity and volume of inputs. There were many non-standard products; data owners were not centrally located; there was no consistent planning methodology for a variety of hardware and software systems; and there was limited funding for improvements. The IMPReSS' objectives were to provide a customer driven system that could improve on-time delivery to committed delivery date, improve the service level to the customer request date, provide early customer notification of delivery delays, and improve return on capital through better use of factory resources and material. System implementation began in 1990, and cross functional implementation teams were established in March 1992. The initial software release date followed in May 1992. Bringing factories on line was completed in March 1993.

The IMPReSS links all Harris global manufacturing sites. The 18-month planning horizon is updated weekly, and weekly product availability is supplied to the order entry system to provide interactive delivery quotes. Schedules are optimized by integrating prioritized demand data from marketing, product structure data from product engineering, work in process and inventory data from each factory, capacity models from each factory, and material availability data from purchasing. Software initially developed at the University of California, Berkeley in association with SRC has been adapted and further developed by Harris to incorporate specific factory models for each facility. Manufacturing now builds to the IMPReSS plan that is derived from the prioritized demand forecasts supplied by product line marketing, and product lines have financial responsibility for the resulting inventory. Factories are now rated on performance against a centrally developed global production plan.

The IMPReSS has reduced the time required for one planning iteration from more than 30 days to less than three days for highly accurate and optimized plans. It has provided a complete, vertically integrated planning system where marketing forecasters are directly planning what the factories build. The System is used for many purposes such as quoting lead time and delivery commit dates, capital equipment justification, and budgets. It has also helped in team building, cooperation, and communication efforts. The system saves time in a variety of areas from factory planning to reacting to changes on orders, forecasts, unexpected scrap or capacity issues and has increased productivity, improved on-time delivery, and decreased delinquent line items.

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