An example of hour-by-hour planning with the Flashboard.

Example:  Turkey Packing

Turkeys are delivered to the plant, slaughtered and dressed.

Each turkey could be sold as a whole bird (WB).

In this case the carcase is injected and then tumbled to prepare for cooking.

It is cooked in the oven, then goes through some finishing processes, and is finally chilled ready for despatch.

Or, the bird can be processed and sold in slices (TS) for use in sandwich filling and pre-packed meals.

All the turkeys delivered to the plant have to be processed and out of the plant before 8pm.

(the plant is washed down at 8pm to comply with food regulations.)

Orders are taken through the day.

Assume whole birds are more profitable than sliced turkey.

If the incoming carcases are not sold as whole birds, they are converted into sliced turkey meat.

The following diagram shows how orders, stocks and the production resources interact with each other through the day.

Resource	am 6	8	10	12	pm 2	4	6	8
Tumbler	TS	WB
Oven		TS
Slicer			TS
Injector	WB
Chiller					WB
Drench			WB
Smoke				WB
Labour	2	2	2	1	1
Product
TS				TS
TS				TS
WB						WB
WB						WB	Avail
Cus Ord
A   WB	Place					Avail
TS	Place			Avail
B   TS		Place		Avail
C   TS			Place

This is a simplified diagram of the graphic approach using a Flashboard.

TS = Turkey Slices.

You can see a batch of TS starting at 6 am in the tumbler,

then flowing from place to place in the factory.

At 12 noon it is completed  product.

Given that there are three customers, A B and C who have orders needing the TS,

2 of those orders will be available to ship at 12 noon.

Customer C's order is unsatisfied, showing that another batch of TS should be planned.

WB = Whole Birds.

The graphic shows that there will be a quantity of whole birds free to sell at 4 pm.

Customer A has ordered 2 items, TS and WB.

You can see that if we want to send just 1 truck, it has to wait until 4 pm