The schedule looked fine when it went out this morning. Then an operator called out, the pallet you needed was still being fixtured off the machine, and a rush order landed from your best customer. By lunch, the real plan was back in a spreadsheet.
If that sounds familiar, the problem usually isn’t your planner. It’s that most scheduling tools only see machines. Skody AI sees the machine, the pallet, and the qualified person together, and it won’t call a job ready until all three are.
The short version: Skody AI is a finite-capacity production scheduling and decision layer for high-mix CNC, fabrication, and discrete manufacturing operations. It automatically resolves machine, labor, material, and priority conflicts and produces an executable schedule optimized first for customer due dates and then for throughput, while your existing ERP stays the system of record. On Time Edge helps manufacturers implement it and make it stick.
In a high-mix shop, dozens of jobs compete for the same machines, people, and materials every day. A schedule that only counts machine hours will happily promise work the floor can’t deliver: the machine is open, but nobody qualified is available to run it, the right pallet is tied up, the material hasn’t arrived, or the outside operation isn’t back yet.
Someone still has to catch those conflicts, and that someone is usually your planner, rebuilding the schedule by hand every time something changes. The more often your schedule changes, the more time disappears into repair work instead of planning.
Skody is built for manufacturers whose schedules change frequently and whose planners still spend significant time building or fixing the real schedule in spreadsheets. Its strongest fit includes:
When Skody is less likely to fit: simple, repetitive production with little constraint interaction; a company primarily shopping for a new ERP; a manufacturer looking for a broad MES or MOM replacement; or a shop whose current whiteboard or ERP schedule already holds up throughout the day.
Most production schedules begin and end with machine capacity. Skody builds one finite plan across the machine, the physical pallet or fixture, and the qualified person needed to run the operation. That isn’t three separate calendars. It’s one constraint model that won’t call work executable unless every required resource is available at the same time.
In an automated CNC cell or flexible manufacturing system, an open machine doesn’t guarantee that work can run. The correct pallet, fixture, setup, and parts also have to be ready. Skody treats each pallet as a finite, schedulable resource, including:
The result is a schedule that never promises machine hours your pallet pool can’t physically support, which helps keep automated cells cutting through nights and weekends. Explore Skody pallet scheduling.
An available machine isn’t usable capacity if no qualified person is available to run it. Skody brings individual human capacity into the same production calculation. Its worker skills matrix can model:
When someone calls out or labor coverage changes, Skody recomputes the plan around the people who are actually there, instead of leaving the staffing conflict for a supervisor to discover on the floor.
Skody recalculates a feasible plan using current constraints and proposes an updated sequence. The planner reviews and commits the change, so your production team stays in control. Skody does the math; your people make the call.
Skody doesn’t replace your ERP. The ERP remains the source for jobs, routings, and business records, and Skody becomes the production decision layer that turns that data into an executable schedule.
Skody runs live with ProShop, Fulcrum, and JobBOSS² and also integrates with Acumatica and SYSPRO. Microsoft Dynamics 365 and QuickBooks connectors are available on request. Skody says it can connect to any ERP; a connection to an ERP it hasn’t connected before typically takes about three weeks after signing.
At Three Sigma Manufacturing, Skody schedules 47 machine work centers. The company reports:
These are customer-reported results from one implementation, not a guarantee of identical results for every manufacturer. Read the Three Sigma case study.
| Best fit | High-mix CNC, fabrication, aerospace and defense, contract manufacturing, discrete assembly, additive, and mixed-operation plants with frequent schedule changes |
|---|---|
| Scheduling model | Finite capacity across machines, qualified labor, materials, setups, pallets, and outside processing |
| ERP connections | Live with ProShop, Fulcrum, and JobBOSS²; integrates with Acumatica and SYSPRO; Dynamics 365 and QuickBooks connectors on request; new ERP connections typically take about three weeks |
| ERP relationship | The ERP remains the system of record; Skody is the production decision layer |
| Time to value | Designed for a short path to a usable production baseline; timing depends on data readiness, integration, and operating-model scope |
| Pricing | Shop plan starts at $1,500 per month, month-to-month. Plant & Enterprise is custom-priced by machines or work centers, production complexity, workforce constraints, integrations, sites, and onboarding |
| Security and hosting | Every deployment is hosted in an ITAR-ready Gov Cloud environment; Skody reports SOC 2 Type II |
Software alone doesn’t change how a plant schedules. On Time Edge provides the manufacturing process, systems integration, and adoption support needed to turn Skody into a working operating process, not just another installation. Since 2004, On Time Edge has helped manufacturers improve planning, scheduling, and execution.
Who does what: Skody supplies the scheduling engine and product capabilities. On Time Edge helps you configure the operating model, integrate it with your current systems, and make the new scheduling process stick.
Skody AI is finite-capacity production scheduling software for high-mix CNC, fabrication, and discrete manufacturing. It builds an executable schedule around actual machine capacity, qualified labor, material readiness, setups, pallets, and outside processing.
No. Your ERP remains the system of record. Skody uses ERP jobs, routings, and related production data to calculate and maintain the operating schedule.
Skody runs live with ProShop, Fulcrum, and JobBOSS² and integrates with Acumatica and SYSPRO. Microsoft Dynamics 365 and QuickBooks connectors are available on request, and new ERP connections typically take about three weeks after signing.
Skody is designed for a short path from ERP data to a usable production baseline. Total timing depends on data readiness, constraint modeling, integrations, and scope.
The Shop plan starts at $1,500 per month, month-to-month. Plant & Enterprise deployments are custom-priced based on machines or work centers, production complexity, workforce and skill constraints, integrations, sites, and onboarding. See current Skody pricing.
Skody treats pallets as finite, schedulable resources, accounting for pallet identity, mounted fixtures, loaded parts, queue position, and pallets being prepared off-cell, then coordinates pallet availability with machines, setups, and lights-out windows.
Skody models each person’s qualifications, certifications, shift availability, and ability to tend one or more machines. An operation is scheduled as executable only when the required machine capacity and qualified human capacity are available together.
On Time Edge helps define the scheduling model, prepare ERP and operating data, map real shop constraints, guide planner adoption, support go-live, and establish a continuous-improvement process.