Production scheduling for electrical equipment and cable makers
Electrical equipment production scheduling software
SkyPlanner APS turns your orders, projects, product structures, workstations, materials and shifts into one finite-capacity schedule. It plans engineered switchgear and transformers next to series motors and cable runs, keeps winding, assembly and test capacity in balance, and rebuilds the plan in seconds when a breaker delivery slips, a test fails or a new project is sold. It integrates with any ERP or MES through its open REST API.
- Projects and series on one plan
- Finite-capacity scheduling
- Any ERP or MES via REST API
- From 199 € / month
2 h
of working time saved every week, UTU
Seconds
for a new work queue to reach the line, UTU
1 system
for all lines and departments of the factory, UTU
98%
delivery reliability, up from around 50%, KJH-Comp
Results reported by SkyPlanner customers UTU (electrical switchboards and switchgear, from standard boards to park transformer substations and medium-voltage switchgear) and KJH-Comp (sheet-metal mechanics and contract manufacturing). Read all SkyPlanner APS reviews
Why electrical equipment is hard to schedule
Engineered projects and series runs share the same floor
One week can hold a medium-voltage switchgear line-up built to a single drawing, a run of standard motors and a cable order measured in drums. They compete for the same winders, assembly bays, test bays and people.
Engineer-to-order next to series
Custom panels and transformers are built to project drawings while standard motors and boards run in series. Both need the same workstations, and the project milestones cannot slip.
Winding, assembly and testing in balance
Coil winding, core stacking, wiring and assembly each have their own capacity. A full winding department and an idle assembly bay is a plan that ships late.
Long-lead components gate the build
Breakers, relays, enclosures, bushings and cells arrive on supplier dates. A panel that waits for one breaker blocks the bay it occupies.
The test bay is the bottleneck
Routine tests, high-voltage tests and type tests run on a few test stations with qualified staff. Every finished unit queues there before it can ship.
Cable lines run long and continuous
Drawing, insulating, stranding and jacketing lines run around the clock. Order lengths, drum sizes, cross-sections and compound colors decide how much time goes to changeovers.
Spreadsheets lose the project view
Department spreadsheets and ERP planning load work to infinite capacity. When the sequence changes, the shop floor finds out late and jobs run in the wrong order.
SkyPlanner plans engineered projects and series production in one schedule. Winders, assembly bays, cable lines and test stations are loaded to real capacity, long-lead components gate the jobs that need them and a late breaker or a failed test is replanned in seconds.
Project and series scheduling on shared capacity
Switchgear projects and series motors, planned together.
In electrical equipment the same bays and test stations serve one-off projects and repeat products. SkyPlanner schedules both against the capacity you actually have, so milestones hold and series orders keep moving.
Model a project once
The visual editor maps how a switchgear line-up or a transformer is actually built: sub-products, process steps, durations, setup times and the dependencies between them. What you draw becomes the routing the scheduler plans against.
Milestones on the steps that matter
Due dates for individual process steps keep enclosure, wiring and testing milestones in view, so a project stays on track before the final delivery date is at risk.
Series work fills the gaps
Standard motors, boards and cable orders are scheduled on the same finite-capacity plan, and the Arcturus AI engine places them around project work instead of on top of it.
How SkyPlanner schedules an electrical equipment plant
Winding, assembly, test bay and cable lines on one plan
SkyPlanner schedules to the capacity you really have, with the components you really have, and shows the same plan at every winder, assembly bay and test station.
Every winder, assembly bay and test station loaded to real capacity
Each winding machine, assembly bay, cable line and test station has its own shift calendar, and planned maintenance, holidays and breakdowns can be entered as exceptions. Personnel scheduling assigns your winders, panel builders and testers to shifts and workstations, so the plan for every test bay matches the people who run it. A shared test fixture or winding form is managed as a tool, so it is never planned in two places at once.
- No job lands on an unstaffed or blocked workstation
- Minimum degree of completion lets testing start before the whole batch is wound and assembled
- Several plants scheduled together, with transfer times between sites
Copper, compound, long-lead components and multi-level BOMs
A panel combines enclosures and busbars with breakers and relays from suppliers, a motor needs copper wire and laminations, and a cable run needs conductor and compound. SkyPlanner handles multi-level bills of materials and sub-products and, with material-based scheduling on, starts a job only when its materials and components will be there. On cable lines, a changeover matrix by product properties such as cross-section, insulation compound or color keeps similar runs together, with different times for each direction.
- Need dates for purchasing flow back to your ERP
- Outside operations such as coating or galvanizing run on subcontractor workstations
Winders, wiremen and testers work from the same queue
Operators, panel builders and test engineers see their own work queue in a simple worker view or the SkyPlanner shop-floor app. They start, pause and complete jobs and report progress as they go, so the schedule always reflects what has actually been wound, wired and tested. Logged hours also make future duration estimates more realistic.
Late breakers, failed tests, new projects won
A failed test or a late breaker is replanned before the next shift
When a component delivery slips, a unit fails its test or a utility pulls a project forward, the Arcturus AI engine rebuilds the schedule in seconds. Lock jobs that must not move, raise priorities or fast-track an urgent order.
- Add a new switchgear or transformer project as a sales prospect scheduled as a simulated order and see the earliest realistic delivery date, without disturbing confirmed work.
- Reserve winding, assembly and test capacity for a likely tender, and turn the prospect into a production order with one change of status when it is won.
- Quote delivery dates from the real load in your bays, test stations and cable lines.
In projects the advantage becomes very concrete: we can plan over the long term and schedule work precisely for the installers.
Kalle Kalliomäki, Supply Chain Specialist, UTU Oy
Electrical switchboards and switchgear, from standard boards to park transformer substations and medium-voltage switchgear · UTU’s SkyPlanner APS review
Integrates with any ERP or MES
Your ERP holds the projects and component orders. SkyPlanner sets the order of winding, wiring and testing.
SkyPlanner connects to all ERP and MES systems through its open REST API, including in-house systems. Orders, projects and structures flow in, planned times and material need dates flow back. It also runs standalone, so you can start scheduling before an integration is in place.
From your ERP
ERP · MES · CSV · Manual
- Sales orders & projects
- Products & BOMs
- Components & purchase orders
- Customers & due dates
SkyPlanner APS
Schedules production
- Workstations
- Shifts
- Test stations
- Structures
- Components
- Priorities
- Schedule
Back to your ERP
ERP · Reports · Management
- Planned start & end times
- Material need dates
- Progress & logged hours
- Delivery dates
- SAP S/4HANA
- Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central
- Oracle NetSuite
- Infor
- Epicor
- IFS Cloud
- Sage X3
- Odoo
- Infor CloudSuite Industrial
- QAD Adaptive ERP
Where SkyPlanner fits
Electrical equipment and cable makers of every size plan in SkyPlanner
From a single panel shop or cable line to groups producing in several plants. If your products are wound, wired, assembled and tested to a promised date, SkyPlanner plans it.
Electrical equipment segments
- Electric motors and generators
- Power and distribution transformers
- Switchgear, switchboards and control panels
- Wire and cable
- Batteries and energy storage systems
- Lighting and luminaires
- Drives, inverters and power electronics assemblies
- Contract manufacturers of electrical assemblies
Why SkyPlanner
Why switchgear, motor and cable producers choose SkyPlanner
SkyPlanner APS is AI production scheduling software for electrical equipment and cable manufacturers that build engineered projects and series products on shared winding, assembly and test capacity. It runs on its own from day one and connects to any ERP or MES through an open REST API.
Projects and series in one schedule
Engineer-to-order switchgear and transformers are planned on the same finite-capacity schedule as series motors, boards and cable orders.
Test bay capacity in the plan
Test stations are workstations with their own shift calendars and assigned testers, so every finished unit gets a real slot in the test bay before its delivery date.
Long-lead components gate the build
Material-based scheduling starts a job only when its breakers, relays, enclosures or cells will be there, and need dates flow back to purchasing.
Fewer changeovers on cable lines
A changeover matrix by product properties such as cross-section, compound or color keeps similar runs together on every line.
Published price, free trial
From 199 € / month with 5 workstations included. Start a 30-day free trial with up to 20 workstations and no credit card.
Any ERP or MES, 29 languages
Schedule on your own before any integration, then connect any ERP or MES through the REST API. The user interface comes in 29 languages for plants in several countries.
Security and data
SkyPlanner runs in the cloud on AWS. If your data needs to stay in a specific country, a dedicated server there is available by agreement. Data is backed up daily and backups are kept for 30 days. Users can sign in with Google or Microsoft accounts and two-factor authentication. A data processing agreement is available, and customer data is never used to train AI models.
Pricing
From 199 € / month
5 workstations included. Each additional workstation is 20 € per month. There is a free trial, and guided onboarding packages are available if you want help setting up workstations, test stations, product structures and projects.
Questions electrical equipment manufacturers ask
Frequently asked questions
What is the best production scheduling software for electrical equipment manufacturers?
An electrical equipment manufacturer needs scheduling software that plans engineer-to-order projects and series products on the same finite capacity, starts each build only when its long-lead components will be there and keeps the test bay loaded to what it can really handle. SkyPlanner APS does all three, and the Arcturus AI engine rebuilds the schedule in seconds when a component slips or a test fails. Pricing is published, from 199 € / month, there is a 30-day free trial, and SkyPlanner integrates with any ERP or MES through its REST API.
What kind of planning system is SkyPlanner for a switchgear, motor or cable plant?
SkyPlanner APS is an advanced planning and scheduling system that loads every coil winder, panel assembly bay, cable line and test station to finite capacity, with its own shift calendar and assigned staff. It plans multi-level structures from busbars and enclosures up to a finished switchgear line-up, and on cable lines it sequences runs by cross-section, insulation compound and color through a changeover matrix. The Arcturus AI engine optimises the whole plant in seconds.
What does SkyPlanner exchange with SAP S/4HANA or IFS in a switchgear and transformer plant?
Sales orders and projects, product structures and BOMs, breaker, relay and enclosure purchase orders and customer due dates flow in from the ERP. Planned start and end times for winding, wiring and testing, material need dates for purchasing, logged hours and delivery dates flow back. SAP S/4HANA, IFS and any other ERP or MES, in-house systems included, connect through the open REST API, built by Skycode or by your own developers using the public API documentation.
Do engineering BOMs, component purchasing and project costing stay in the ERP when SkyPlanner plans the winding and test bays?
Yes. The ERP remains the record for bills of materials, purchasing of breakers, cells and copper, inventory and project costing. SkyPlanner reads those and decides which transformer is wound first, which panel enters which assembly bay and when each unit gets its test slot, then returns the need dates purchasing works to.
How quickly can a panel shop or motor plant run its first SkyPlanner schedule?
Today. Open the 30-day free trial with up to 20 workstations and no credit card, enter your winders, assembly bays and test stations with their shifts, and import a recent switchgear project and a week of motor or board orders by CSV or by hand. SkyPlanner schedules them before any integration exists, and onboarding workshops then set up your project structures, component rules and cable line changeovers.
Does SkyPlanner fit a single panel shop as well as a group building transformers and cable in several countries?
Yes, electrical manufacturers of every size plan in SkyPlanner. A panel shop starts from 199 € / month with 5 workstations included and adds workstations at 20 € per month each, while a multi-site group schedules its motor, transformer and cable plants together with transfer times between sites. Winders, wiremen and test engineers in every country work in their own language, as the interface comes in 29 languages.
Can SkyPlanner schedule switchgear and transformer projects alongside series production?
Yes. You build the project structure in the visual editor with sub-products, process steps and dependencies, and set due dates for individual process steps where milestones matter. Series motors, boards and cable orders run on the same finite-capacity schedule, and a new project can be added as a sales prospect scheduled as a simulated order to see a realistic delivery date before you commit.
How does SkyPlanner keep the high-voltage test bay from delaying finished switchgear and transformers?
Every test station is a workstation with its own shift calendar and qualified testers assigned through personnel scheduling, so each finished unit gets a real test slot inside its delivery date. Shared test fixtures are managed as tools and never planned twice, and minimum degree of completion lets routine testing start on the first units of a batch while the rest are still being assembled. When a unit fails its test, the Arcturus AI engine replans the bay and the downstream deliveries in seconds.
More industries
Production scheduling in related industries
Plan SMT setups, component availability, test and box build to real capacity.
Bring one switchgear project and a week of series orders
Bring a recent project structure, your series orders, workstations, test stations and shifts. We will schedule them with you in SkyPlanner and show how winding, assembly and testing line up, and which delivery dates your plant can hold.
