In modern production, it’s not just about whether materials are available—but also whether they are in the right place at the right time with the right quality and shelf life. The new version of DUALIS’s detailed planning tool GANTTPLAN expands material flow planning with new functions to account for best-before dates as well as context-sensitive batch and storage location management.

Ensuring planning reliability

“In many companies, materials are spread across multiple warehouses—which often turns planning into a balancing act between inventory levels, transportation costs, delivery times, and shelf lives. Our new storage location function in GANTTPLAN ensures that the system automatically selects the optimal storage location—taking into account transport routes and shelf-life windows—and thus creates planning reliability,” explains Dr. Kirsten Hoffmann, Product Manager at DUALIS GmbH IT Solution.

This creates a realistic time window

The best-before date is not considered in isolation: To account for best-before dates (BBDs) in planning, precise batch management is necessary. GANTTPLAN enables the differentiation of batches based on shelf life data and takes into account different shelf life types—such as whether the shelf life of the end product depends on the materials used or has its own shelf life. This creates a realistic time window for planning production orders and order networks.

When time is of the essence: Shelf life, Open Time

The relevance of such functions is particularly evident in industries with intermediate products that have limited shelf life and storage capacity. In the food industry, raw materials such as fruit concentrates or milk powder must be processed within defined time periods to ensure quality and safety. Precise batch and storage location planning is essential here. What is traditionally referred to as the “best-before date” in food production may be called “shelf life,” “out time,” “open time,” or “moisture sensitivity level” (MSL) in other industrial contexts.

Critical for Quality and Safety

In industries such as aerospace and automotive, sensitive materials like pre-preg fiber composites, adhesives, sealants, paints, or battery cells must be processed under defined conditions and within tight time windows, as they quickly lose quality or workability. In electronics manufacturing, solder pastes, underfills, and moisture-sensitive components are time-critical and must be processed or dried within the specified timeframe. In mechanical engineering and medical technology as well, the timely provision of lubricants, seals, or sterile components is crucial for quality and safety.

Batch Management: Traceability and Shelf Life Combined

The new batch management feature in GANTTPLAN enables precise tracking of materials with varying properties—such as quality grades, chemical compositions, or shelf lives. Batch information is directly integrated into the material relationships in the planning process and forms the basis for scenarios that also account for characteristics like best-before dates or processing windows. This is intended to make detailed planning not only smarter but also safer—especially for time-critical materials.

Storage Locations in the Context of Shelf Life

The storage location function also plays a central role in conjunction with best-before dates: Materials with limited usability must not only be made available on time but also from the correct warehouse. GANTTPLAN automatically identifies prioritized storage locations, takes transport times and costs into account, and assigns materials accordingly. If a production step is carried out at an alternative workstation, the supplying warehouse dynamically adjusts—ensuring that shelf life is not compromised by unnecessary delays.

“Interplay of location, quality, and time”

“With the new features of our APS, we are significantly expanding detailed planning: Material availability is no longer viewed merely as ‘available or unavailable,’ but contextually—in the interplay of location, quality, and time. This helps us understand where the material comes from, what its condition is, and how long it will last. This results in realistic, resource-efficient production planning,” explains Heike Wilson, Managing Director of DUALIS GmbH IT Solution.

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