Morsa publishes this guide. Morsa is software with an AI agent that works in your ERP, email and Teams; it keeps supplier dates current for the schedule, and a planner approves each change.
Quick answer
Try this first: sort the week by earliest due date. In our example below, that alone took one order from 19 working hours late to on time, with no new software.
If changes still outrun the planner, price an APS. For 40 machines: SkyPlanner about €10,800 a year, EDGEBIC $25,000 once, PlanetTogether quoted (worked below).
Leaving Excel: SkyPlanner imports orders from CSV, EDGEBIC by Excel, CSV or database, and PlanetTogether connects to Excel or your ERP [1][2][3].
High-mix job shop: SkyPlanner and EDGEBIC both sell scheduling for work where every order takes its own routing [9][10].
For planning tools more broadly, including ERP modules, see production planning software.
Finite vs infinite capacity
Infinite-capacity planning, the way MRP and most ERP capacity reports work, schedules each order back from its due date as if machines had unlimited hours, then shows a machine at 140% for a person to fix. Finite-capacity scheduling books only the hours a machine, shift or person has: if the laser is full on Tuesday, the job and every later operation move to Wednesday. APS does that for every job at once.
Excel vs APS on one week’s schedule
A fabrication shop has three machines in a line: laser, press brake and weld. One 8-hour shift, 7 am to 3 pm, Monday to Friday, gives each machine 40 hours. Four orders arrive, in this order:
Order | Due | Hours on laser, brake, weld |
|---|---|---|
A | End of Wednesday | 6, 4, 6 |
B | End of Friday | 4, 8, 7 |
C | End of Thursday | 10, 6, 4 |
D | End of Tuesday | 3, 3, 5 |
The load check. Many weekly sheets add up hours per machine without looking at sequence: laser 23 of 40, brake 21 of 40, weld 22 of 40. Every machine is under 60% loaded, so the sheet says the week fits.
What actually happens. Each order finishes on one machine before it starts the next, and each machine runs one order at a time. Run the orders as they arrived, the way most whiteboards do, or sequence by earliest due date:
Order (due) | First come, first served | Earliest due date first |
|---|---|---|
A (Wednesday) | Done Tuesday 3 pm, on time | Done Wednesday 10 am, on time |
B (Friday) | Done Thursday 8 am, on time | Done Friday 3 pm, on time |
C (Thursday) | Done Thursday 1 pm, on time | Done Thursday noon, on time |
D (Tuesday) | Done Friday 10 am, 19 working hours late | Done Tuesday 10 am, on time |
D waits behind A, B and C on every machine though it is the most urgent. Hours were never the problem; the sequence was. A planner who sequences by due date in Excel gets the same answer as the APS here.
Then something changes. Tuesday at 11 am, B’s steel supplier emails that the sheet arrives Thursday at 7 am, not Wednesday. Re-sequenced, B runs the laser Thursday 7 to 11 am, the brake to Friday 11 am, and weld from Friday 11 am, finishing 3 hours after the shift ends. Known on Tuesday, the fix is 3 hours of weld overtime Friday or a call to the customer about Monday. Known Wednesday, when the laser operator finds no steel, it is a surprise. An APS re-sequences in seconds, once someone enters the new date.
Can Excel do finite capacity scheduling?
For a few machines, yes, with formulas that push each job to the next free slot. It breaks when changes come daily and each one has to ripple through every later job by hand.
Three dispatch rules
A dispatch rule decides which job runs next. APS tools let you choose one or blend them.
Rule | Picks next | In the example |
|---|---|---|
First come, first served | The job that arrived first | D 19 working hours late |
Earliest due date | The job due soonest | All on time |
Shortest processing time | The job with the least total work | C 1 hour late |
Due-date rules suit shops judged on on-time delivery. Shortest processing time clears the most jobs fastest but can leave a big job late, as with C.
APS prices
Tool | Price | Import and fit |
|---|---|---|
SkyPlanner | €199 a month with 5 workstations, plus €20 per extra workstation; 30-day trial; onboarding and ERP integration priced separately [1] | Orders by CSV or REST API; scheduling pages for metal fabrication and job shops, connectors for JobBOSS², Epicor, NetSuite and others [1][9] |
EDGEBIC APS (User Solutions) | $25,000 one-time perpetual license [2] | ERP data by Excel, CSV or database import; sold as job shop scheduling for high-mix, low-volume work [2][10] |
EDGEBIC Complete | $35,000 one-time perpetual license [2] | Adds material planning (MRP), purchasing and pegging |
PlanetTogether | Not published by the vendor; SourceForge lists from $1,500 a month, with no source given [4] | Connects to Excel or ERPs including SAP, Dynamics, NetSuite, Infor, Epicor and QAD; integrations take about 4 to 8 weeks, it says [3][5]. |
Siemens Opcenter APS | Quote; free trial offered | Long-term planning through detailed sequencing [6] |
Asprova | Quote | Finite capacity scheduler [7] |
DELMIA Ortems | Quote | Finite-capacity optimization across planning horizons [8] |
What that means for a 40-machine shop, counting each machine as one scheduled workstation:
SkyPlanner: €199 for the first 5, plus 35 at €20 (€700), is €899 a month, about €10,800 a year. It bills in euros.
EDGEBIC APS: $25,000 once.
PlanetTogether: $18,000 a year at SourceForge’s listed starting price; get a quote for 40 machines.
None of these includes implementation, and no vendor here publishes an implementation price. PlanetTogether’s 4 to 8 weeks covers the ERP integration only [5].
Job shop scheduling software: which tools fit high-mix work
SkyPlanner’s fabrication page schedules each routing step on its own workstation, for anything from one job shop to groups with several plants [9]. User Solutions sells EDGEBIC as job shop scheduling for high-mix, low-volume work that runs beside SAP, Epicor, QuickBooks or any ERP [10]. If your ERP has a schedule board, try it first; job shop ERP covers what each includes.
Bring these to any demo, from your ERP: routings with real run and setup times, work-center calendars with shifts and maintenance, open orders with due dates, on-hand stock with the due date on every open PO, and changeover rules if the sequence changes setup time. Shops that record actual run times with shop floor data collection get a better schedule from the same engine.
When a plant needs APS at all
A spreadsheet sorted by due date, checked daily, is enough when:
one machine or cell is the bottleneck and the rest follow it;
open jobs fit on one screen;
the schedule changes a few times a week, not a few times a day.
APS earns its cost when:
several constraints are shared at once (machines, skilled operators, tools or molds);
changeovers depend on sequence;
re-planning happens more than once a day, or takes a planner more than an hour each time;
you schedule more than one plant or shift pattern.
These are our rules of thumb: by-hand sequencing fails when one change ripples across several resources faster than a person can follow it.
Getting the supplier’s date into the schedule
The weak point in the example was the Tuesday email. Morsa works in your ERP (JobBOSS2, Epicor, Business Central, NetSuite or another) and the buyer’s and planner’s inboxes.
It reads the supplier’s email about B’s steel and updates the PO date in the ERP, under a rule the buyer approved once.
It re-sequences in your APS, or from the ERP routings if you have none, and shows the options: “B finishes 3 hours late Friday: 3 hours of weld overtime, or a Monday ship.”
The planner picks one. Morsa tells the weld lead in Teams and drafts the customer note for the rep to send.
To see it on your own schedule, book a 30-minute walkthrough.
Which one to pick
Your situation | Start with |
|---|---|
One bottleneck, a few changes a week | Excel or your ERP’s schedule board, sorted by due date |
Job shop leaving Excel, wants finite scheduling cheaply | SkyPlanner, on its 30-day trial |
Prefers to own the license outright | EDGEBIC APS, or Complete if parts drive the delays |
Want a deep link to SAP, Dynamics, NetSuite, Infor or Epicor | PlanetTogether, which lists those ERPs [5], against Opcenter APS and Asprova |
Late jobs caused mostly by supplier dates | Fix the dates first; see material shortages |
Scheduling is one step of eight; the steps around it, from the master schedule to the parts check before release, are in the production planning process.
Sources
SkyPlanner, Pricing: https://www.skyplanner.ai/pricing (read 8 November 2026); SkyPlanner, Features (orders typed in or imported from CSV): https://skyplanner.ai/features/ (read 8 November 2026)
User Solutions, EDGEBIC pricing: https://usersolutions.com/pricing (read 8 November 2026)
PlanetTogether, home page (“Connect to your ERP or Excel”): https://www.planettogether.com/ (read 8 November 2026)
SourceForge, PlanetTogether listing (starting price, no source given): https://sourceforge.net/software/product/PlanetTogether (read 8 November 2026)
PlanetTogether, Pricing and integration FAQ: https://www.planettogether.com/pricing (read 8 November 2026)
Siemens, Opcenter Advanced Planning and Scheduling: https://www.siemens.com/en-us/products/opcenter/advanced-planning-scheduling-aps/ (read 8 November 2026)
Asprova, home page: https://www.asprova.com/en/ (read 8 November 2026)
Dassault Systemes, DELMIA Ortems: https://www.3ds.com/products/delmia/ortems (read 8 November 2026)
SkyPlanner, Metal fabrication production scheduling software: https://skyplanner.ai/metal-fabrication-production-scheduling-software/ (read 8 November 2026)
User Solutions, Job shop scheduling software (updated 8 October 2026): https://usersolutions.com/scheduling-software-for-job-shops (read 8 November 2026)
