When running NETRONIC Software, we have been helping numerous SMB manufacturers to move beyond their whiteboards. However, when discussing production scheduling with our customers and partners, we kept encountering the same frustrating pattern: extensive academic research on production scheduling existed, struggling manufacturers desperately needed practical guidance, and almost nothing connected these two worlds.
The academic literature offers thousands of papers on job shop scheduling algorithms and optimization theory. But try finding hands-on guidance for a 100-person precision manufacturer who needs to implement realistic production scheduling next month, not next decade. That resource barely exists.
Hence, we decided to close that gap by writing a production scheduling novel.
Why Does This Book Exist?
We wrote Alpine Precision’s Digital Production Scheduling Journey because SMB manufacturers deserve better than trial-and-error approaches to production scheduling. These companies create real value, employ real people, and serve real customers. They shouldn’t struggle with delivery promises and operational visibility simply because practical guidance doesn’t exist.
Through hundreds of implementations, we observed capable manufacturers hitting growth walls not due to market demand or technical skill, but because their informal coordination methods couldn’t scale. Success obscured the problem until suddenly—usually around 50-100 employees—the whiteboard broke, overtime exploded, and delivery performance collapsed.
The pattern was consistent. The solutions were proven. But the knowledge remained trapped in our heads and scattered across individual client experiences.
Why a Production Scheduling Novel Instead of a Manual?
You’re busy. You don’t have time for theoretical frameworks or academic papers. You need to quickly understand production scheduling concepts, see how they apply in realistic scenarios, and recognize whether your situation matches the problems described.
Eliyahu Goldratt’s The Goal proved that complex manufacturing concepts become not just understandable but memorable when wrapped in human stories. They show principles in action, revealing how real people navigate real challenges in recognizable environments.
Sarah Martinez’s weekend scheduling nightmare will feel familiar because you’ve lived some version of it. Otto Müller’s practical wisdom will resonate because every shop floor has an Otto. Emma Weber’s financial pressure will hit home because every SMB owner has felt that weight.
Stories stick. Principles fade. We chose the format that creates lasting impact.
Why Business Central?
Beyond our professional experience with Business Central production scheduling implementations, the Business Central community embodies something we deeply respect: practical solutions over theoretical perfection, collaborative problem-solving over competitive secrecy, and real-world results over marketing hype.
Business Central represents the sweet spot for SMB manufacturers—sophisticated enough to handle complex scenarios, accessible enough for mid-market budgets, and flexible enough to grow with your business. Most importantly, it’s the ERP system many of you are already using or considering.
The lessons in this book apply beyond Business Central. Still, we’ve deliberately set the story in this ecosystem because it’s where our experience lives and where many of our readers operate.
What You’ll Learn
This book won’t teach you mathematical optimization algorithms. Instead, it reveals:
- Why ERP and scheduling are complementary, not competitive systems
- How to evaluate and select production scheduling solutions for SMB environments
- What realistic implementation actually looks like (spoiler: not like vendor demos)
- How to integrate scheduling with Business Central without creating data chaos
- Why “garbage in, garbage out” matters more than any algorithm
- What makes scheduling systems work with real people on real shop floors
Alpine Precision is fictional, but every challenge they face comes from real client experiences. Every mistake they make, we’ve seen made. Every breakthrough they achieve, we’ve helped facilitate.
Why We’re Sharing This for Free
We sold NETRONIC Software and now find ourselves in a transitional period—somewhere between our past duties and “the next Karlowitsch thing.” We simply have the time and freedom to give back to the community that has given us so much.
This isn’t a sales tool disguised as education. We’re not selling software anymore. We just want to raise the bar for production scheduling understanding in the SMB manufacturing world.
The Business Central community’s “sharing is caring” ethos inspired this approach. We’ve benefited enormously from the generous knowledge sharing within this ecosystem.
This book is our way of contributing back.
Read Alpine’s journey. Recognize your own challenges in their struggles. Learn from their mistakes and victories. Then take what’s useful and apply it to your own manufacturing reality.
Because every manufacturer deserves to move beyond the whiteboard—literally and figuratively.
Elmar & Martin Karlowitsch
October 2025
Acknowledgements
“Elmar, Martin and the wider team have built a fantastic production scheduling product – and you should be suitably proud of it. They excel at embracing scheduling while keeping things simple for the users. Especially, Elmar stood out in placing trust in Giro and helping me adopt the system here quite some years ago. This enabled me to bring Giro to the next level.”
Jonathan Stent MBA, CEng, MIMechE | Managing Director | Giro Engineering Ltd
“Production scheduling is a tricky thing. Especially if you are a high-mix, low-volume manufacturer with shifting bottlenecks and ever-changing priorities. Martin supported us in embracing and appreciating the value of a pragmatic approach to scheduling.”
Dirk Hildebrandt | Chief of SPM/Engineering/Production planning | WiCHMANN GmbH
“The BC manufacturing ecosystem doesn’t have enough scheduling specialists who truly understand all: the ERP side, the operational side, and the varied realities you have to solve for effective SME production scheduling. Martin has repeatedly bridged the gaps superbly and is my go-to guru on this critical topic.”
James Crowter | Managing Director | Technology Management aka TECMAN
“Elmar and his team have developed a “best in class” solution for businesses such as mine. The solution and Elmar’s dedicated support moved us from chaos to order & growth. I admire the thought leadership and logic behind this software.”
Mark Hildebrand | Project Management | Economasters
“Elmar is an absolute expert in the field of scheduling. He has incorporated all his theoretical knowledge and extensive practical experience into the standard product “just plan it”. The result is the most powerful scheduling tool for all SMB manufacturers.”
Dave Luckner | Founder | Production Priorities Inc.
“I can’t imagine Netronic’s products without Martin behind the scenes and on the stage (or countless webinars) explaining their benefits and teaching us the way to go. Thank you for the wonderful scheduling journey, and especially thank you for VAPS filling in the gap perfectly!”
Marcin Karpacz | Dynamics 365 Business Central Solution Architect | Sii Polska
“We were at a breaking point—too big for our whiteboard, too complex for manual scheduling, but not sure what came next. Martin gave us the framework and tools to scale without chaos. He understands something most consultants miss: mid-sized manufacturers don’t need perfect schedules, they need visible, flexible, realistic schedules. His implementation focused on what we actually needed, not what looked good in demos. That practical wisdom made all the difference.”
Michael Eisenlohr | CEO | Joline GmbH & Co. KG
“It’s been a real pleasure working with Elmar. His product JPI has come a long but very successful way since our initial calls and the early stages of development, and Elmar’s support throughout the years has been greatly appreciated.”
Guillermo Cardoso | Automotive & Import Business Unit Manager | Canada Rubber
“Working with Martin gave us a genuine sense of confidence — the feeling that no matter what question we asked, we would always get the right answer. He was like our ace in the pocket, the person you turn to when things get truly complex.
What stood out most was his ability to break down even the most intricate or tangled questions into clear, simple insights before guiding us to the solution. That, to me, is consulting in its purest form.
But what truly sets Martin apart is his focus on sustainability — not just in the environmental sense, but in empowering his clients. Thanks to his approach, we’re now able to tackle complex challenges on our own with the same structured clarity he modeled throughout our collaboration.”
Erhan Yilmaz | Process Coordinator SCM Processes | HAWE Hydraulik SE
“For years, I searched for a planning tool that fits the needs of my steel shop. Discovering Elmar and JPI (just plan it) was a turning point. Its intuitive approach, tailored for SMBs with a non-continuous manufacturing process, won me over instantly. The ability to look at your plan from an order perspective or from a resource perspective with just a click was a game-changer for us. It significantly improved our OTD and customer satisfaction.”
Juan Carlos Martínez C. | CEO | Jemo
“I’ve worked with a few scheduling consultants over my career. Martin was the first who brings it all: the understanding of scheduling, the understanding of Business Central, and the understanding & empathy for our shopfloor realities. He was also the first who actually listened to how I work rather than telling me how I should work. The tools he implemented amplify my expertise instead of ignoring it.”
Garen Meliksetyan | Business Process & ERP Manager | Empack Spraytech Inc.
“Elmar and Martin are absolute experts in the field of production management, especially scheduling. When it comes to consulting, development, and implementation of standard scheduling software for SMB manufacturers, those brothers and their team are the best choice. I truly appreciate how they manage to make complex things pragmatic, providing hands-on and actionable advice.”
Andreas Hunds | Head of Production Planning | Chocoladefabriken Lindt & Sprüngli
“Martin’s approach to production scheduling is pragmatic and methodical — he doesn’t promise magic, but provides the tools and insights that genuinely support planners in their daily work.”
Bart Vanbelle | Practice Director | Norriq
“I had been an ERP Manufacturing consultant for some years before I decided it was time to change my practice from an Infor product I could service but not sell, to Microsoft Dynamics NAV. As I began to investigate this brave new world – one of the first people I met was Martin Karlowitsch. It was a fortunate accident that Martin and I were at the same conference in the USA at the same time. I was from Canada (admittedly not that far) but he had flown in from Germany.
We quickly got to know each other, sharing a taste for good food, beer, and a love of manufacturing. Martin was a thoughtful man of few words, but those words were insightful and always welcomed.
Within the ecosystem of Microsoft Dynamics, Martin provided a much-needed set of tools for manufacturers using NAV. His products included various graphical scheduling software add-ons. Graphical schedulers are the often-wanted, usually needed feature of a manufacturing ERP that Microsoft itself did not provide.
Over the years, I got to know Martin better and realized that he had much the same passion for manufacturing as I did. We came to it from different directions, but as he and his products grew with Microsoft NAV into Dynamics 365 Business Central, so did his knowledge of scheduling. He brought a clarity and simplicity to the discussion that I really appreciated (and matched my own thoughts).
Martin shares my passion for making manufacturing ERP scheduling and planning fit the capabilities of the customer. His insights into how to use rough planning and finite capacity scheduling together are refreshing and inspiring. Combining capable-to-order promising for a rough-cut delivery and later adding a finite capacity planning tool to create a working schedule was a paradigm shift.
I hope his new book inspires a new generation of Business Central (or even some other ERP) consultants to develop that love of manufacturing and fascination with scheduling that he shows. Production scheduling is a complex and challenging equation. For someone with a mathematical and logical brain, it presents a glorious puzzle that can occupy you for hours and days. Martin definitely has the passion and love of that puzzle and manages to pass that feeling of wonder and joy to any who listens to him.”
Robert Jolliffe | President | Sabre Limited
