nPower Technologies Announces the Release of nPower Scheduler™ 1.1.0

nPower Technologies Announces the Release of nPower Scheduler™ 1.1.0

New release incorporates nPower VUE graphical user interface and enhanced resource scheduling capabilities

Philadelphia, PA USA, November 4, 2024— nPower Technologies, developer of advanced production scheduling software for additive manufacturing, announces the general release and availability of its nPower Scheduler 1.1.0. The nPower Scheduler offers manufacturers the unique ability to schedule every operation within an additive manufacturing process, including the “printer” and all post-printing resources.

“The nPower Scheduler is the first comprehensive solution to truly address the complex scheduling requirements that result when a single additive build plate diverges into multiple post-processing operations,” said Kevin O’Keefe, Chief Executive Officer at nPower Technologies.  “Additive manufacturing doesn’t stop after the printer but encompasses all the manufacturing routing steps until shipment to the customer.  While many try to manually schedule the entire shop floor using spreadsheets, they lose valuable time doing so and the result frequently does not accurately reflect the needed shop floor activity.  We understand the complexity of scheduling and the granular inputs needed to provide additive manufacturers with automated scheduling, exceptional shop floor control, and comprehensive visibility of resources.”

One of the new features includes the nPower VUE, a rich, graphical user interface (GUI) that allows users to efficiently and intuitively manage their shop floor schedule, work center dispatches, and work order progress.

“The nPower VUE enables operators, technicians, and managers to visibly and clearly see when jobs are scheduled to start and to finish. They can track progress live and recognize if any jobs will be late and why,” said David Bennett, Chief Product Officer at nPower. “With this release, users can quickly understand the real-time usage for each manufacturing resource on their shop floor, supporting better production decisions and improved on-time delivery to customers.”

Key features of the nPower Scheduler™ include:

The concurrent scheduling of materials (powders, polymers, etc.), work centers, operators, and outside services across the entire additive manufacturing shop floor.

• Time-phased netting of material at every additive machine, enabling each machine to be scheduled based on the expected material availability and the requirements to produce each part.
• The innovative option of ‘controlled asset auto selection’ which allows the scheduler to select and plan work centers based on matrices of approved machines for each product.
• The use of ‘setup optimization’ to group operations across multiple work orders, improving production efficiency by reducing the overall production time through the work center.
• Integration to any ERP/MES system through a mapping interface.

nPower Technologies’ end-to-end scheduling solution eliminates the many hours of manual, and often inaccurate, spreadsheet planning faced by additive manufacturers. The nPower Scheduler allows users to map live data and plan production timelines literally in minutes, scheduling resources and materials concurrently through the entire shop floor. Release 1.1.0, with its new visual user experience and enhanced resource scheduling, is available now.

About nPower Technologies

Headquartered in Philadelphia, PA, nPower Technologies focuses on providing advanced solutions to the complex operational challenges of additive manufacturing.  The nPower Scheduler™ is characteristically unique in scheduling the entire additive manufacturing process from printer through post-processing to shipment, providing improved production efficiencies, greater throughput, and increased profitability. For more information, please visit npowertech.com.