What are the biggest planning pain points for manufacturers? Let's tackle them one by one.
Labor shortages and productivity pressure
The shortage of skilled workers remains one of the industry’s biggest headaches. Fewer young people are choosing technical careers, which raises the workload for those who do. Research from Ipsos shows that eight out of ten Dutch people notice a shortage of skilled workers in their area. You may feel it yourself: overloaded schedules, tight deadlines, and more room for error.
A smart capacity plan can help. By seeing who works when and on which machine, you can spread work fairly and reduce waste. Still, planning alone isn’t a silver bullet. If there truly aren’t enough hands, even the world’s best planning tool can’t fill every gap.
That’s why valuing craftsmanship matters just as much. Investing in people, training, and healthy workloads makes the difference. Our sector needs a mindset shift: people who work with their hands deserve more recognition and visibility. Only then can we drive real change.
With a tool like vPlan, you bring human craftsmanship and intelligent planning together—boosting efficiency as well as team appreciation and job satisfaction.
Too much manual work
Many manufacturers still rely on spreadsheets and disconnected systems. It’s time-consuming, error-prone, and clouds the big picture. You know the drill: a quick tweak in Excel and suddenly your entire plan is off.
With vPlan, you automate the process. Connect your ERP and sync data automatically. Less manual work means fewer mistakes, more calm, and more focus on what truly matters: production.
Productivity growth through digitization
The era of simply hiring more people to grow is over. The focus is on creating more value with the same team. According to Rabobank, labor productivity needs to increase by as much as 50% over the next decade to stay competitive.
Digitization and automation are no longer nice-to-have—they’re essential. By streamlining processes, cutting waste, and gaining real-time visibility into your planning, you can absorb peaks and prevent downtime.
Connect your planning to your ERP so you always have a grip on capacity, material usage, and lead times. Once everything is linked, you work from one source of truth. That means less manual effort, fewer surprises, and more time to focus on value-adding work.
Rising costs and margin pressure
Raw materials, energy, and logistics have been getting more expensive, while margins are under strain. You can’t pass everything on to customers, so working efficiently matters more than ever.
A strong planning system helps you eliminate waste and optimize resource use. You get:
- Clear insights into lead times
- Less overproduction and fewer waiting times
In short: higher output from your existing capacity, without compromising quality.
Budget control and project progress
Feel like you’re losing grip on costs? Without visibility into hours and utilization, budget overruns creep in. With vPlan, you track planned versus actual hours at a glance.
Team members can log time easily—manually or with a timer. You’ll always see whether a project is still on budget, and you can intervene early if it’s not.
No visibility into capacity and project progress
One of the biggest frustrations: not knowing exactly where things stand. How far along is an order? When is a machine free? Who still has room in their schedule?
These blind spots make it tough to hit deadlines and stay on budget. vPlan gives you real-time visibility into staff availability and order progress. You can factor in leave and standard days off per employee, and you can drill down to the exact status per order and upcoming deadlines—so you can step in before delays escalate.
Clunky collaboration
We’ve all seen it: production stalls because sales didn’t communicate a change, or work prep is missing crucial details. Poor communication breeds misunderstandings and mistakes.
In vPlan, teams collaborate in shared projects and tasks. Add notes, share files, and communicate in real time to keep everyone aligned and your workflows smoother.
Change management: the human side of the factory of the future
Digitization is here to stay—but people remain the most important factor. New systems demand new skills, and not everyone embraces change at the same pace.
The answer? Build buy-in. Invest in training, provide support, and let employees experience how digital tools make their day easier. A user-friendly system helps: intuitive, visual, and designed to empower teams—never burden them.
Automation
Automation and robotics are reshaping manufacturing. Robots take over repetitive or heavy tasks, giving employees the space to focus on process improvements and higher-value work.
The benefits are compelling:
- Higher productivity
- Better quality
- Lower costs over time
- More flexibility in your production schedule
To realize those gains, your planning must adapt. Robots can run 24/7—if you know how to align their capacity with the rest of your production flow. With a planning tool, you can perfectly orchestrate people, machines, and materials.
See how this works in practice
Want to discover how smart production planning gives you real control over processes, capacity, and lead times? On December 2 at 10:00, we’re hosting a webinar specifically for manufacturers. We’ll show how vPlan helps you create oversight, work more efficiently, and increase delivery reliability.
Work at vPlan
We are looking for new colleagues.
