What is a Digital Planning Board?
A digital planning board is the modern answer to traditional planning methods in manufacturing. Instead of moving orders on a physical whiteboard with magnets and cards, planning board software maps the entire production schedule on a screen. Each machine gets its own row, the timeline runs horizontally — and each order is displayed as a colored bar that can be moved, extended or rescheduled with a mouse click.
The crucial difference from conventional solutions: A digital planning board shows the current production status in real time. As soon as a worker at the machine starts or completes an operation, the view updates automatically. Production managers instantly see which orders are in progress, where gaps are forming and which machines are becoming available. This real-time feedback makes the planning process fundamentally more efficient than any static paper solution.
At its core, the digital planning board is based on a Gantt chart: Horizontal bars on a timeline, named after engineer Henry Gantt. This principle has become established in production planning because it shows at a glance when each machine is occupied with which order. GanttWork transfers this proven concept into a browser-based cloud application that requires no installation and is accessible from anywhere.
Advantages Over Traditional Planning
Many manufacturing companies still plan their production with magnetic boards, Excel lists or handwritten plans. These methods quickly reach their limits as the number of simultaneous orders increases. A digital planning board fundamentally eliminates these bottlenecks:
Real-Time Overview
See at a glance which order is currently running on which machine. No more asking around on the shop floor — the current production status is always just one click away, whether you are at your desk or on the go.
Drag & Drop Rescheduling
Move orders by mouse from one machine to another or to a later time. Changes become visible immediately, without anyone having to rearrange magnets or shift rows in a spreadsheet.
Automatic Cascading
When an operation takes longer or is moved forward, all subsequent steps adjust automatically. No manual updating of follow-up dates — the planning board recalculates the entire order chain in a fraction of a second.
Multi-User Access
Production managers, work planners and supervisors work simultaneously on the same planning board. Every change is instantly visible to everyone. No more different Excel versions being emailed back and forth.
Machine Utilization at a Glance
The Gantt chart visually shows you where capacity is available and where bottlenecks are looming. You instantly see whether a machine has capacity in two weeks — and can realistically schedule new orders.
No More Paperwork
Job travelers, order folders and handwritten notes are a thing of the past. All order information, drawings and processing times are centrally stored in the planning board and accessible to everyone involved.
Planning Board vs. Production Control Center vs. MES
Anyone dealing with production planning quickly encounters various terms: digital planning board, production control center and MES (Manufacturing Execution System). The boundaries are fluid, but there are significant differences in scope, complexity and target audience.
| Digital Planning Board | Production Control Center | MES | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Main Focus | Visual Planning & Scheduling | Control & Monitoring | Entire Production Process |
| Complexity | Low — ready to use immediately | Medium — configuration needed | High — months-long project |
| Typical Costs | From €99/month | €5,000–50,000 | €50,000–500,000+ |
| Implementation Time | Hours to days | Weeks to months | Months to years |
| Target Audience | Small & medium companies | Medium companies | Large industry |
| ERP Dependency | None (standalone) | Often recommended | Mandatory |
GanttWork deliberately positions itself as an accessible middle ground: The software offers more than a pure planning board — with worker feedback, planned vs. actual analysis and automatic cascading, it includes features that are otherwise only found in expensive control center solutions. At the same time, GanttWork forgoes the complexity of a full MES. You get exactly the tools that a manufacturing company with 3–50 machines actually needs in daily operations — without unnecessary overhead.
Core Features of a Modern Planning Board
Not every planning board software is built the same. For a digital planning board to truly add value in manufacturing, it should include these six core features:
Gantt Timeline
The heart of every planning board is the horizontal timeline with machine scheduling. Each resource is displayed as its own row, orders appear as colored bars. The timeline can be freely scrolled and zoomed — from the daily view to the monthly overview. This way you keep both the current day-to-day business and the long-term capacity situation in view.
Drag & Drop
Intuitive operation is crucial for acceptance in the company. Via drag & drop, you move operations on the timeline or drag them from one machine to another. The planning board immediately updates all affected dates and shows possible conflicts. Even employees without IT experience can operate the planning in just a few minutes because the interface works the way you are used to from smartphones and tablets.
Operation Chaining
In manufacturing, a workpiece passes through multiple operations sequentially: Sawing, milling, turning, grinding, quality control. A good planning board maps these chains visually and ensures that subsequent steps only begin when the previous one is completed. GanttWork connects operations with visible chain lines and automatically moves dependent operations when a step changes.
Shift Calendar
Machines do not run around the clock — or they do, depending on the company. A shift calendar defines when each machine is available: Early shift, late shift, night shift, weekends, holidays and plant shutdowns. The planning board only schedules orders into available time slots and calculates realistic completion dates based on actual shift times.
Worker Feedback
The best planning is of little use if nobody reports what is actually happening on the shop floor. Through simple worker terminals at the machine — tablet, touch monitor or PC — machine operators report the start and end of each operation. This feedback flows directly into the planning board and enables a live, current production overview instead of an outdated plan version.
Planned vs. Actual Analysis
How accurate are your time estimates? The planned vs. actual analysis compares the planned processing time with the actually required duration — automatically and per operation. This way you systematically identify which estimates are too optimistic, where machines run slower than expected and where there is potential for improvements. This data is invaluable for more precise quotes and shorter lead times.
Who is GanttWork Suited For?
GanttWork is not a universal solution for every industry — but specifically developed for companies where multiple orders must be simultaneously planned on different machines. These target groups benefit the most:
Job shops & contract manufacturers: Companies that produce individual parts and small batches to customer order. Every order is different, every workpiece has different dimensions and processing steps. This is exactly where a flexible planning board plays to its strengths, because rigid serial programs do not fit this order structure.
CNC shops: Milling shops, turning shops and combined machining companies that need to utilize various CNC machines. When workpieces pass through multiple processing steps on different machines, visual chaining on the planning board is essential for clear scheduling.
Companies with 3–50 machines: GanttWork is ideally sized for small and medium manufacturing companies. Too few machines, and planning still fits in your head. Too many, and you need a full MES. In the range in between — where most job shops operate — a digital planning board provides the greatest value.
Companies without ERP dependency: Many planning board solutions require an expensive ERP integration. GanttWork works completely standalone. Orders are imported via Excel or entered manually — that is perfectly sufficient when you want to get started quickly without launching an IT project.
Companies in Austria, Germany and Switzerland: EU hosting, German-speaking interface, GDPR compliance and support in German. For companies in the DACH region that value data privacy and a local contact person.
From Magnetic Board to Cloud
The history of production planning is a history of tools. For decades, the physical planning board was the number one planning instrument on the shop floor: A large board on the wall, equipped with magnetic strips, colored cards and handwritten order numbers. Anyone who wanted to reschedule went to the board and moved the magnets. Simple, tangible — but also limited: Only those standing in front of the board knew what was going on.
With the rise of computers came Excel as a supposed improvement. Production managers typed orders into spreadsheets, colored cells and emailed updated plans. The advantage: You could save and copy. The disadvantage: Every change required manual updating, dependencies were not mapped, and by 30 simultaneous orders at the latest, the spreadsheet became unmanageable. Additionally, there was always the problem of the outdated version — who had the latest file?
Today, cloud technology enables a qualitative leap: A digital planning board like GanttWork runs in the browser and is accessible from any device — from the office PC to the tablet on the shop floor to the smartphone on the go. There is no local installation, no version conflicts and no IT effort. Changes are immediately visible to everyone, worker feedback flows in real time.
The journey from the magnetic board to the cloud planning board may have taken three decades — but the switch itself is fast. Many GanttWork customers are already planning their ongoing production on the digital planning board on the first day, because getting started is so easy: Set up machines, configure shifts, import orders — done.
Try It for Free Now
See for yourself how simple a digital planning board can be. We set up a dedicated demo instance for you — with your machines, your shift times and, if desired, with real order data from your company.
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