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Frequently asked
questions about Prestige Scheduler
Buying Prestige
Scheduler
Using Prestige
Scheduler
About Prestige
Scheduler
Don’t see your
question or answer here?
Just contact us.
How
does the 60 day trial work?
We have found that Prestige Scheduler trials are 100%
successful when combined with our Get Started installation package. To
make the most out of the 60 day period, we want to visit your site for about
three days and assist with the installation, setup and training. Your
obligation is limited to our time and travel expenses.
If you have another manufacturing information system that we can
connect to, we can usually read whatever job details are available and create
the jobs in Scheduler. This is ideal, even for the trial, since it makes
it easy to have all your production jobs in Scheduler - which is essentially
required for a real test. Manufacturing information systems, and the many ways
different organizations use them, make it nearly impossible to have a stock
interface - so Pivotal Z will customize Scheduler’s job import interface. This
service is quoted case by case but $500 - $1000 is typical.
Once Prestige Scheduler is installed and set up in your plant, you
have 60 days to hammer on it, to discover how well Scheduler works with the
unusual jobs and ever-changing circumstances of any manufacturing shop. After
60 days, if it’s not just right for you, don’t buy it - no problem, no
obligation, no questions. (Well, we might be curious - but that’s it. You
see, it’s never happened before.)
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How
much is Prestige Scheduler?
Prestige Scheduler Enterprise Edition starts with
4 users for $9,995. A 10 user system is $11,995, and
includes Scheduler’s free web component for Zope.
In October '04 Pivotal Z introduced a new Monthly Plan
for Prestige Scheduler. You can now get a 10 user system for just
$500 a month. This includes your annual maintenance and licensing.
Prestige Scheduler Small Business Edition includes
online installation, setup, and training for $2,995. You may elect
to upgrade the online time to our On-Site Get Started installation.
An annual maintenance fee supports development, covers
program updates, and includes a limited number of support incidents.
The rate is 15% of Prestige Scheduler’s current purchase price at
the time of renewal. Your first maintenance fee is due 90
days after purchase.
Click here to view our pricing and options page for
complete details.
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What
is the annual cost for Prestige Scheduler?
The Annual Maintenance Fee for Prestige Scheduler
is 15% of the current purchase price. Your first premium is due
90 days after purchase and yearly after that. The annual revenue
supports new development, provides updates as they become available,
and includes a limited number of technical support incidents, usually
three.
The Montly Plan for buying Prestige Scheduler includes the Annual
Maintenance Fee.
What
is the difference between the Enterprise Edition and the Small Business
Edition?
Prestige Scheduler Small Business Edition contains
all the current features and capabilities of the Enterprise Edition,
except that it is single-user only and limited to 500 concurrent
bars. The Small Business Edition has a built in database.
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I
really need a scheduler and this one is perfect, but the cost is higher than I
was planning to spend for my small shop. How do I pay for this?
You are expected to prepay for the work done to get the trial
started. See above: How does the 60 day trial work? for more specifics on
this.
After the 60 day trial period is complete, assuming you’re keeping
the software, we usually invoice you for the full price of the system. If
this is prohibitive to you, please contact us. For special circumstances we can
break the cost up into a few payments or help arrange a lease-to-own solution.
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More
importantly, how do I justify this?
The return on investment from Prestige Scheduler can quickly be
found in many areas of your company - from sales right on through shipping. But
exactly how much benefit you will receive depends highly on the current state
of affairs in your shop. What prompted you to look for an organized scheduling
solution in the first place? We can help you determine this more precisely for
your individual company. Just
contact us.
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How
do I get support when I need it?
Help is available via e-mail, phone, and online using tools
like pcAnywhere. Pivotal Z frequently receives calls beyond other
company’s regular business hours. And we can schedule time for support and
training when it works for you, even on the weekends.
How
do I create a job in Scheduler?
You can create a job in scheduler from scratch or a job
template. A simple job can be entered from scratch in a couple of minutes.
Complex jobs can be duplicated in seconds using a template - and Scheduler
automatically adjusts certain process times according to the new
quantity.
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Can
I reduce data entry in Scheduler by importing jobs?
If you have an existing order entry or estimating system, you
can import relevant job information into Scheduler and add to or modify it as
needed from there. If your MIS system doesn’t include specific job-by-job
process routings and loadings, create templates for your typical jobs and
parts. Scheduler can use the process routings and loadings from a
designated template to fill the gaps in imported jobs.
How do we do it? Even with well-known MIS systems, every
organization uses the system’s features uniquely. Pivotal Z, working with you,
will rapidly develop a customized job importer. A starter interface is usually
developed for the trial period. It is useful for testing scheduler with every
job in your shop. How else can you test a scheduler?
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Can
I connect my shop floor data collection system with Scheduler?
Yes. One possibility Prestige Scheduler provides is a
TCP interface that accepts scheduler commands for setting the status of an
order on the active board. This feature can be utilized by existing data
collection systems with a customized add-on from Pivotal Z.
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Does
Scheduler provide its own shop floor data collection?
Yes. You can use Prestige Scheduler workstations in
monitor mode to act as data collection station for shop floor employees.
Does
Scheduler come with the reports I need?
Prestige Scheduler comes with typical reports to get you
started. To do lists for resource centers, late jobs, and jobs out for proof
are among them. Since reporting has as many individual needs as there are
manufacturers, Scheduler is designed to accept custom reports in its report
menu. Pivotal Z will help you get the information you need from Scheduler - and
potentially your other information systems with it.
What
is the difference between Design Mode and Monitor Mode?
Monitor Mode is where you see the current schedule board in
real time. Users can quickly find job steps on the Electronic Schedule
Board or Resource Lists and change the status to Not Ready, Ready, Setup,
Running, Washup, Machine Paused, Job Interrupted, Machine Breakdown, or
Completed. You can change the labels for each setting, while their inherent
functionally is preset - so in your operation, Setup might be termed Make Ready
or Warmup (or Preparar in Spanish).
Shop floor employees can indicate when raw material is ready and
how much. In the Process Detail screen, enter or see how much quantity or
time is planned, done and left to do for any board process.
Design Mode is allowed to those individuals who should make
changes to the schedule like importing and reviewing, creating or dropping
jobs. The designer is Scheduler’s manager and your shop floor planner.
Access is controlled in Prestige Scheduler’s Setup program, on a
user-by-user basis.
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Can
I reserve time on Scheduler’s board?
Reservations are like any other job, except that they appear
as black bars on the schedule board. Reservations are easily created from
templates and, if applicable, can be generated from selected estimates in your
estimating system.
Can
I indicate scheduled maintenance, or other down time, on a resource?
Down bars can easily be created, for months at a time, from
calendar templates called proformas. Down bars represent the scheduled time a
resource is unavailable. This includes overnight time, if your entire shop
isn’t run 24 hours a day, and weekends, holidays, break time, planned
maintenance.
Once created, the individual down bars for any resource can be
dropped or modified. This is how you control and plan for overtime. Add
downbars on the fly for one-time occaisions like an employee leaving
unexpectedly or a department meeting.
How
does Scheduler maintain dependencies between parts of a job?
Any job in Scheduler can have up to 20 numbered parts and one
special part zero. The numbered parts can have no dependencies between
each other and are treated as individual jobs. Part zero is exactly the
opposite.
Part zero can be used only at the beginning or end of the
job. You may assign any process to the beginning and ending part zero
just like any other part in your job. The unique difference is: every process
on the beginning part zero must be complete before starting any numbered parts.
Likewise, every numbered part must be complete before the ending part zero
processes may begin.
Part zero is used for steps at the beginning and end of the job
when the entire job, all the numbered parts, are worked on together. For
instance, the entire job (all the job parts) may sit in the Purchasing and
Design and Material Prep departments before the parts can be split and sent on
their individual paths. The processes for these three departments are
assigned to the part zero at the beginning of the job.
At the end of the job, many of the individual parts may come
together for assembly. This assembly and some other parts are now packaged in a
kit. Then the entire job is shipped to the customer’s warehouse. These
steps are assigned to the ending part zero on the job. Scheduler knows
all the numbered parts must be complete before any of this work can start.
How
does the web component work?
The web component is a new and evolving free bonus for
Prestige Scheduler installations of 10 users or more. Our component is
code that runs on a Zope plug-in available for many web servers. Information
about Zope is available at www.zope.com.
Currently the web component provides a report equivalent to
Scheduler’s Resource Lists. New functionality is being added regularly to show
progress reports for individual jobs, security, and more.
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How
can Prestige Scheduler be customized?
Prestige Scheduler is customized in several ways. We will
customize Scheduler’s job importer to read jobs from your existing
manufacturing information system. We can also read and process your inventory
values and connect with most shop floor data collection systems to provide
Scheduler and you with up to the minute stats.
As we install Scheduler, we can redefine virtually any label or
word for local language and industry lingo. You can call a job a Job, an
Order, a Traveler, a Replenishment or whatever suits your process and makes
Scheduler easier to learn and use.
Scheduler’s report menu is extendable to allow custom reports to
be run directly. Pivotal Z has access to 100+ customized documents and will
work with you to create the reports you need using Crystal Reports.
Scheduler has many fields that are flexible and can contain
whatever data is useful to you - and be labeled appropriately. A job can
have a Salesman, Category, and Product - which are essentially ways to group
and report on work. Each process has a tag field, the value of which
appears on the Electronic Schedule Board above each process bar.
Prestige Scheduler has three definable alerts. These alerts
are applied to specific processes to flag them for special treatment. Create
alerts to indicate a process needs special attention or a setup check is
required or the customer will proof this or....
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What
is involved in the installation, setup and training process?
To ensure a successful trial and startup, Pivotal Z will be
with you each step of the way. We start by determining your needs for
customizing the job importer so you can use Scheduler from day one with all of
your shop’s active jobs. We prefer to have this ready to use before we
begin the trial period.
Next, we spend two to three days at your facility assisting with
product installation, initial setup, and training your employees. Product
installation is usually routine. Scheduler’s Task Manager and the
Pervasive database are installed on your server. Scheduler clients are then
installed on the workstations and configured to connect to the server.
The setup of Prestige Scheduler involves entering users, building
board and status resources, and creating the down-time calender. We can change
any of Scheduler’s labels to better define the function in your plant. We can
then create a couple of jobs and test the configuration before importing or
entering all your active jobs.
Training begins with your scheduler and production managers and
other key personnel. We go over Scheduler’s interface and each screen. We
build and edit basic jobs. We change the calendar. We plan the
production schedule (or part of it, depending on how many jobs you have). We
build some unusual or complicated jobs.
Training continues with your shop floor personnel and any other
employees who may use Scheduler’s monitor mode. We go over each screen
and how to use Scheduler to answer those everyday questions. We enter
time for job steps and simulate some work being done by changing the status of
some jobs.
If time permits, we will remain on site to observe and answer
questions as they arise. For off-site questions and issues, we provide
e-mail, telephone, and remote control (using pcAnywhere) support and training.
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What
are the system requirements for Prestige Scheduler?
Prestige Scheduler runs on Windows 95, 98, Me, NT, 2000, XP
with a Pentium I processor or equivalent and 64MB RAM or better. A Pentium II
with 128MB RAM runs nicely. A 17” (1024 x 768) monitor is recommended for
persons using Prestige Scheduler in Design Mode.
Prestige Scheduler’s Task Manager comes in two forms. It can be
run as a service on Windows NT, 2000, XP. A workgroup version is included that
can be run as a task-tray based application on Windows 95, 98, NT, 2000, XP.
The Pervasive Database engine can be purchased for a peer-to-peer
workgroup or client/server network. The workgroup edition requires Windows 95,
98, NT, 2000, (currently testing on XP) with an Intel 486 or better and at
least 32MB RAM. See
www.pervasive.com
for more information.
Prestige Scheduler’s Task Manager and Pervasive database and
database engine are commonly run on the same server or workstation.
What
database engine does Scheduler use?
Prestige Scheduler uses any Pervasive.SQL 2000i database
engine. These include a Client-Server engine well suited for 5 or more
users, and a peer-to-peer Workgroup engine that works best for 8 or less users.
Work is in progress to complete a connection allowing Prestige
Scheduler to use your Microsoft SQL Server for the back end database.
This is ideal if you already have an investment in MS SQL Server.
How
much is the database engine?
Pervasive’s Client-Server engine with 10 users is $1195 and
the Workgroup engine starts at $150 with three users. The options and
pricing page has complete details on the database portion of the costs and
prices for additional client connections.
What
operating systems and networks will Scheduler run on?
Prestige Scheduler and the Pervasive database engines run on
Windows 98 and newer systems with Windows NT/2000/XP networks.
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Where
does Prestige Scheduler come from? What’s the history? Who uses it?
Prestige Scheduler is developed and distributed worldwide by
Scheduling Technologies Limited of New Zealand. The principal is Chris
Ashman.
After a development period of two years and the initial release in
1995, Prestige Scheduler has been utilized by production companies
world-wide. The design was centered around the printing and imaging
industry - and most of the plants currently using Scheduler are printers.
Scheduler’s integral flexibility has allowed us to grow in to the general
manufacturing and production industries.
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Don’t see your
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Just contact us.
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