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The ‘Reality Gap’ – A Silent Killer of Your Manufacturing Operations

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An hour of unplanned downtime can cost up to $2.3 million for large manufacturing companies operating in the automotive sector. For small and medium-sized enterprises, the cost can reach $150,000 per hour.

These staggering figures underscore the critical importance of addressing the Reality Gap – the disconnect between production plans and actual shop floor operations. This gap contributes significantly to unplanned downtime, leading to missed deadlines, inflated operational costs, and diminished customer trust.

Why Traditional Planning Falls Short

In addition to volatile demand, supply chain uncertainty, and pressure for operational excellence, today’s manufacturing sector faces a quiet threat – one that many leaders don’t even realize exists.

While they continue to rely heavily on spreadsheets and outdated Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems, they often overlook the fact that these legacy tools mistakenly assume fixed (or even normative) lead times, perpetually functioning machinery, and a constantly available workforce.

In reality, however, production floors are dynamic – full of unexpected breakdowns, absences, and delays – creating a chasm between theoretical planning and real-life execution. This mismatch is one of the key contributors to costly and recurring downtime in manufacturing operations.

From Static Planning to Constant Chaos

Legacy planning systems, built on fixed timelines and oversimplified models, are fundamentally inadequate. Shop floors constantly grapple with fluctuating setup times, variable performance levels, and unforeseen constraints. This persistent disconnect results in chronic operational issues—missed deadlines, excess inventory, and a reactive, crisis-driven workplace culture.

Bridging the Reality Gap

Addressing this hidden challenge requires manufacturers to transition from reactive to proactive management. By anticipating issues before they occur, taking preventive measures based on accurate data, and shifting from constant firefighting to strategic improvement, manufacturers can gain greater control. This transformation helps factories respond effectively to disruptions, ensuring smoother, more productive operations and significantly reducing the risk of unplanned downtime.

Why Advanced Planning & Scheduling (APS) Tools Are Essential

The solution lies in Advanced Planning and Scheduling (APS) tools enhanced by Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning technologies. Unlike traditional methods, these solutions integrate directly with Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES), capturing real-time data from the production floor. Additionally, they create a digital process twin, offering an accurate, dynamic simulation of actual shop-floor behavior. Such advanced capabilities result in realistic and resilient schedules that genuinely reflect manufacturing realities—and help mitigate downtime before it happens.

Realistic Predictions – A New Foundation for Operational Excellence

The primary benefit of adopting AI-based APS tools is realistic, data-driven planning. Through realistic predictions, manufacturers achieve optimized schedules that are not only theoretically sound but also achievable in real-time operations. This significantly improves resource utilization and reduces unnecessary expenditures such as waste, excessive inventories, and expedited shipping costs. Manufacturers adopting APS see immediate improvements in operational excellence, translating into higher customer satisfaction through reliable delivery and improved On-Time Delivery (OTD) performance.

The Transformative Power of Machine Learning

Machine learning-based APS systems harness historical data to close the gap effectively. With MES integration ensuring instant data capture, manufacturers gain unprecedented insights into real-time operations. The digital twin further enhances predictive accuracy, enabling achievable and resilient scheduling. These sophisticated predictive tools transform planning processes, dramatically enhancing efficiency and adaptability in an increasingly volatile manufacturing environment.

Real-Life Benefits: From Firefighting to Thriving

Ultimately, implementing modern APS solutions results in a host of practical benefits. Manufacturers enjoy schedules they can trust, controlled costs, climbing On-Time Delivery rates, and teams that shift from daily firefighting to strategic improvement. This transformation isn’t merely about adopting new tools—it’s about a fundamental shift in operational mindset, from guesswork to grounded execution and from reactive tactics to resilient strategies.

Close the Gap: A Real-World Perspective

In one of our recent projects, we partnered with Domel, a leading manufacturer of electric motors and components with 1,200 employees and €200 million in revenue, to close the Reality Gap with a more realistic approach to planning and scheduling, achieving:

  • €220,000 in annual savings at just one plant
  • 25% reduction in downtimes
  • 75 hours per week saved for planners
  • 10% improvement in JIT delivery

If you’re curious to explore the details, you’re welcome to book a free consultation to walk you through the case study.

Let’s talk

Downtime cost estimations referenced in this article are based on findings from Siemens ”The True Cost of Downtime 2024” Report.

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With QLECTOR LEAP, we have digitally mapped every process within our company, revolutionizing our operations. This allows us to swiftly and efficiently formulate our production plan, complete with auxiliary workstations. The true game-changer lies in the plan's automatic updates. Simultaneously, all subsidiary processes remain informed of any modifications

By bidding farewell to a multitude of Excel files once essential for production planning, we not only declutter but also reclaim valuable time. The era of manual updates is now behind us.
I wholeheartedly recommend Qlector Leap to those who have yet to establish a systematic production planning system and still rely on Microsoft programs. The tediousness of handling such files and their susceptibility to errors can now become a thing of the past

Domen Škrbina

Head of Production Logistics at Kovis

Kovis is an internationally innovative company for the development and production of high-quality components for the railway industry and various parts for other industrial sectors. The company has established itself internationally with the production of brake discs for all types of railway vehicles: from locomotives, trams, and metro lines to high-speed trains. In addition to the brake discs, Kovis is also the largest manufacturer of axle boxes for freight wagons in Europe.
Kovis turns good ideas into a safe and sustainable future.

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QLECTOR LEAP has enabled significant progress in production plan optimization, as it learns from historical data, optimizes the plan, and provides more optimal suggestions for planners and production.

The most useful functionalities include real-time inventory overview, scheduling of workers and tool changes, and a user-friendly experience for planners, who receive a Gantt chart and a real-time overview of weekly realization. Any changes made to the plan in SAP by the planner are immediately visible in LEAP, allowing us to see when we will have reconfigurations and reduces tool change time.
The condition for using QLECTOR LEAP is well-organized data. With this condition met, LEAP operates with great precision, which is why I would recommend it to other manufacturing companies.

Marija Golja

Production Planner at Kolektor

Kolektor is a global supplier that boasts a tradition of highly specialized industrial production. In almost 60 years of experience, the company became a global provider of mobility components and systems and has added programs outside the automotive industry in the process of diversification and globalization and has spread to other continents.
Kolektor is a synonym for credibility, trust, quality, and innovative products and services. The programs are managed in three strategic groups: Kolektor Mobility, Kolektor Technologies, and Kolektor Construction.

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Qlector's software optimizes production planning in a simple, intuitive way and opens up new optimization options in a simple form thanks to the AI algorithms and various evaluations and reports. A must for modern production

Ingo Hild

Plant Manager at ams OSRAM Group

ams OSRAM is a global leader in innovative light and sensor solutions, building on over a century of experience. Combining engineering expertise with global manufacturing, the company delivers groundbreaking applications that make the world safer, smarter, and more sustainable. Specializing in high-quality semiconductor-based light emitters, sensors, and software, ams OSRAM continues to push the boundaries in illumination, visualization, and sensing across diverse industries.

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QLECTOR LEAP has enabled the automation of planners' work, faster response to changes in production planning, and management of a larger number of machines.

The results are currently evident in shorter inventory lead times for binding unfinished production and semi-finished goods, where we observe a 10% improvement. I would also highlight the expertise and agility of the Qlector team in terms of understanding and adapting to our production planning peculiarities. Domel follows modern trends in digitization, which is why QLECTOR LEAP seamlessly integrates into the ERP and MES system and is certainly one of the AI integrated APS solutions worth exploring.

Matjaž Roblek

Supply Chain Director at Domel

Domel is a global development supplier of electric motors, vacuum motors, blowers, and components. The company was founded in 1964 and has production facilities in Slovenia, Serbia and China. Their motors power over 300 million appliances in premium and consumer markets worldwide. Domel’s business processes employ high levels of technology, automation and robotisation, which form a basis for building competitiveness and excellence.