Transparency and agility are crucial in modern production planning. Especially in medium-sized companies with complex production processes, the lack of connection between production stages can lead to delays and inefficiencies. This is where pegging comes into play.
What is pegging?
In production planning, pegging refers to the tracing of requirements back to their origins. It enables the relationship between a requirement (e.g. customer order) and the associated production or procurement orders to be made transparent across all levels of the bill of materials. This makes it possible to see which components are required for which order and how they are linked to each other.
Why is pegging crucial in detailed scheduling ?
In many ERP systems, the MRP (Material Requirements Planning) run generates production orders based on requirements and stock levels. However, this often results in isolated orders without a direct link to each other. This leads to several challenges:
- Delays are not passed on: If an order is delayed at a lower production stage, this is not automatically communicated to downstream stages.
- Priorities are lost: An urgent customer order does not automatically influence the priority of the associated sub-orders.
- Lack of transparency: Without clear links, it is difficult to identify and eliminate bottlenecks at an early stage.
Pegging provides a remedy here by making the dependencies between the orders visible and thus enabling consistent and realistic detailed scheduling .
Examples from practice
In electronics production
The production of a control unit includes the assembly of a printed circuit board and its subsequent mounting. Without pegging, delays in assembly could go unnoticed and affect assembly planning.
In metal processing
A machine component first undergoes mechanical processing and is then assembled. Missing links between these stages can lead to inefficient planning and wasted resources.
The role of APS systems
Advanced Planning and Scheduling (APS) systems such as those from PAILOT offer a solution to these challenges. Through the integration of pegging logic, they enable:
- Dynamic adjustments: Changes in one order automatically affect all dependent orders.
- Consistent prioritization: Important orders receive the necessary attention across all production stages.
- Optimized resource planning: bottlenecks and overloads are identified and avoided at an early stage.
In the era of the smart factory, integrated and transparent production planning of this kind is essential for competitiveness.
Transparency creates room for maneuver
Pegging is much more than a technical function - it is the key to proactive and forward-looking production planning. If you know and understand your production links, you can react more quickly, control more specifically and produce more efficiently. In combination with a modern APS system such as PAILOT's, planning becomes a strategic competitive advantage.
