nPower Scheduler™

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Automated Scheduling for Complex Divergent Production

While 3D printing is an operation, additive manufacturing is a process. The nPower Scheduler extends scheduling beyond your additive machine to your entire shop floor, optimizing production to deliver the end item orders on time to your customers.

Challenges

The nPower Scheduler solves these common additive manufacturing challenges:

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• Scheduling nested builds in work centers based on material availability as well as capacity

• Scheduling a build plate work order containing multiple end items such that each end item order that diverges from the build plate is delivered on time

• Assigning and scheduling controlled assets based on capability and approval to produce certain products

• Scheduling all work centers based on overall shop and individual resource calendars

• Updating the schedule based on changes to delivery dates, production quantities, job progress, and more

Benefits

• Removes the many hours of manual and error-prone scheduling using spreadsheets

• ​Concurrent scheduling

  • Materials (metal powders, polymers, pellets, etc.)

  • Work Centers (printers, wire edm, milling/lathe, etc.)

  • Labor (operators, QA/QC, etc.)

  • Outside Services (HIP, painting, anodizing, etc.)

• Auto selection and scheduling of controlled assets based on end item approval matrices

• Scheduling based on calendars of the overall shop floor and at each work center

• Grouping and scheduling operations with similar setups to gain production efficiency by minimizing “teardowns”

• Accounts for additive printer material availability and viability/quality

• Runs as scheduled service on interval or designated time of day, or on-demand

• Mapping interface ties the scheduler to any ERP or resource system

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For more information about the nPower Scheduler, contact David Bennett at 603-898-9800, x2642.