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Prime Focus Technologies Boosts Production Efficiency with EML’s Automated Scheduling Solution

Background

Prime Focus Technologies (PFT), a global leader in AI-powered cloud solutions for the media and entertainment industry, faced inefficiencies in its restoration division. Specializing in content management and distribution, PFT works with top media companies like Disney Hotstar, Warner Bros. Discovery, and Channel 4. However, the manual production scheduling of media restoration orders caused delays, errors, and unpredictable timelines due to constantly shifting priorities and resource availability. To resolve this issue, PFT turned to Easemylife (EML) for an automated, reliable solution.

The Problem

PFT's Restoration division encountered significant challenges in its production planning, which was managed manually. The process had numerous complexities, including:

  • Frequent priority changes in customer orders requiring constant reshuffling.

  • Each order had a unique processing sequence based on content type and objectives.

  • Resource sharing and capacity variations between tasks made scheduling complicated.

  • Planned holidays, unplanned leave, and the use of temporary workers created volatile resource availability.

  • With manual scheduling, delays and inaccuracies plagued their ability to commit reliable delivery dates to customers.

This inefficient approach increased labor, time, and the risk of errors, hampering the division’s ability to manage orders effectively.

Solution Offered

The EML team developed an automated Production Line Scheduling system that streamlined PFT’s restoration process. The solution included:

  • Customer order priority management, enabling real-time reshuffling.

  • Creation of resource, order, location, and holiday masters to handle varying factors.

  • Time-phased resource availability calculated over the next six months to forecast requirements.

  • A separate daily work recording database to track progress.

  • Flexibility for planning users to adjust scheduling start dates and planning horizons.

  • A Daily Production Schedule, optimized to run within a minute, which could be updated daily for better accuracy.

This solution significantly enhanced scheduling precision and reduced the effort required from PFT's planning team.

Implementation Process

We developed the first version of the system based on the user requirements  and then based on user feedback kept making changes

  • The first feedback was that the resource mapping master which depicted the process speed could not depict different speeds for different quality standards. The Development team corrected this

  • Users also wanted resources to be grouped as common or allocated under a specific order. This was also customized as required

  • Development was then done to model Temporary Resources which could be added or subtracted within a time period as requested by users

  • PFT team also expressed the need to record the work done on a daily basis. We were easily able to develop and incorporate this.

  • By now the logic had become very complicated. To handle this, the development team separated the Resource Availability logic from the main Allocation logic and created two separate process steps independent of one another

  • Just before implementation, PFT demanded the time period to be in shifts instead of days. This was a major challenge as it would mean changing the basic architecture of the system. The EML team was however determined to meet this need and serviced the same because the users saw a lot of value in it.

Results and Benefits

The introduction of EML’s automated scheduling system brought multiple tangible benefits to Prime Focus Technologies:

  • Accurate daily planning: Despite the dynamic nature of the environment, schedules were adjusted daily, ensuring real-time adaptation to changes.

  • Improved visibility and delivery commitment: The system’s dashboard offered clear visibility on order statuses, enabling accurate delivery date commitments to clients.

  • Flexibility in order prioritization: PFT could now modify order priorities and immediately assess the impacts on resources and delivery schedules.

  • Enhanced resource utilization: Data-driven resource management reduced idle time, improved resource allocation efficiency, and optimized costs.

In summary, EML’s solution transformed PFT’s manual, inefficient scheduling process into an automated, reliable system, significantly enhancing their ability to meet client demands, control costs, and deliver projects on time.

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