Scheduling and optimisation for UK process manufacturers
Your planners decide by hand every week what runs next, where, and in what order. Optira costs those decisions from your own data and tells you plainly whether they're worth fixing. The price is fixed, there's no system integration, and there's no obligation after the first call.
The kind of problem Optira takes on
In many process plants, the ERP records what happened and someone with a spreadsheet decides what happens next. Because that decision falls between production and IT, it is rarely measured. Optira measures it, and builds a tool only where the numbers justify one.
Someone decides which batch runs next, in which vessel, how big and how often. It's decided weekly or daily, usually on experience and usually by one person.
The evidence is already in your ERP or MES history. One Excel extract is enough to start, with no system access and no integration. You can read how your data is handled.
Everything is fixed-price and agreed in writing first. Most work starts with a diagnostic that measures what the decision costs. I quote for a build only if the numbers support it, and "don't build" is a valid answer.
The coatings diagnostic is one example. Whatever your plant makes, the first step is the same: a free call about the decision you'd like costed, then a fixed price, agreed in writing, for finding out. If this sounds familiar, describe it to me on a call.
Who you'll work with
Alex IevinsDirector, Optira Systems Ltd
Optira Systems is a small specialist firm doing production-scheduling and optimisation work for UK process manufacturers. I do the analysis and write the code myself, so the person on your scoping call is the person who builds the tool.
That's also why a project usually starts with a short, fixed-price diagnostic rather than a build. You see the work, on your own data, before committing to anything bigger.
PhD Cantab.
20 years in academia, finance and industry
13 years building scheduling and optimisation tools for manufacturing
Book a free scoping call
Email me with brief details of your planning problem and we'll arrange a free, no-obligation call.
What the call covers
A few questions decide whether a diagnostic would be worth your money:
- Which decision you'd like costed, and who makes it today
- How it is made: spreadsheet, ERP or judgement
- Whether the history exists electronically (times, quantities, resource IDs etc.)
- Whether it is a known pain, or nobody has looked yet
If it makes sense to go further, I'll quote in writing. Usually that's a fixed-price diagnostic first, run as a few short calls with the people who know the decision, or a build straight away if the problem is already clear. The price is fixed and agreed before any work starts. If you run a coatings plant, see the cleandown example.