Swift & Company schedules beef fabrication live with 45 linear programs, getting 200% ROI.

Swift & Company processes beef across five US plants and takes orders continuously, so planning was slow and many promises were made that the plant could not keep.

The obvious approach is to plan the week once and hope. Swift instead built an integrated system of 45 linear-programming models based on three model formulations that schedule fabrication dynamically in real time as orders arrive.

This let the company run a better plant and, crucially, answer the customer about a requested date in seconds using a capability-to-promise view of cattle supply and plant capacity.

The application improved order fulfilment and on-time delivery, and delivered a 200 percent return on investment in its first year.

Schedule live so you can promise what you deliver

Real-time dynamic scheduling matches the pace at which orders actually arrive

A single system of LP models unites the five plants rather than each planning alone

Capable-to-promise turns a back-office system into a sales advantage

Better promises and better delivery feed each other

When orders arrive continuously, a model that re-plans in real time turns the schedule into a sales tool — it lets you promise only what you can actually deliver.

The application enabled Swift & Company to execute its business strategy and document improvements in order fulfilment, on-time delivery and the share of a week's production already backed by orders, earning a 200% return on investment in its first year. The Interfaces (2006) paper became a model for capable-to-promise scheduling.