Production Scheduling and Control have always been very challenging tasks for all printer companies.
At DIP, METRICS is showing an innovative tool, called METRICS PRINTWARE, that looks at this problem from a different perspective. Instead of simple planning boards, Metrics offers what they call a “Collaborative Production Environment”.
“After more than 10 years developing scheduling tools for printers, we’ve learned that planning boards are not enough. There is a big communication and synchronization problem that must be solved to get an environment where you can make good production decisions and really optimize resource usage” says Osmar Barbosa, Metrics’ president.
Metrics PRINTWARE is a server based environment that maintains all job information, do the scheduling with Automatic Task Allocation, Gant Charts, Conflict Solver, Check Points, etc. All production information can be captured directly from machines, and updates the schedule. The users can see the impact of any problem, at the moment it happens.

Figure 1. Metrics Interface — Job Schedule View

The system interface is impressive: WEB based, everything happens real time and synchronized: move a bar on a computer screen and the bar automatically moves everywhere. Register produced quantities and the schedule is adjusted. You can even see the machine counters and status on the scheduling board. The system is already implemented in many important printers, like Editora Abril, the biggest printer company in Latin America.