Pipe extrusion scheduling
Turn HDPE and PVC pipe orders into a line-feasible schedule that uses the lines you approve for each product, pounds per hour by line, the changeover minutes you enter for die, diameter, and resin changes, and delivery dates.
30 days free · No credit card required · No automatic charge
Who this is for
Production managers balancing pressure pipe, conduit, and specialty runs across a mixed line fleet.
Schedulers replacing a workbook or whiteboard that only one person fully understands.
Plant managers and owners who need a reliable view of delivery risk without launching an ERP project.
Real scheduling constraints
A 2-inch conduit order and an 18-inch SDR 11 pressure-pipe order cannot be treated as interchangeable hours. Match each SKU to lines with the right extruder, downstream sizing, cooling, haul-off, and cut or coil capability.
Switching HDPE grades, PVC compounds, or colors takes purge and setup time that depends on what ran before. Enter those minutes for each product pair on a line and RunMark reserves them before the run; it does not know about grades, colors, or regrind on its own.
Store realistic throughput by line and product instead of one plant-wide rate. Output changes with diameter, wall section, formulation, cooling limits, and quality requirements.
Reserve the setup window for die and pin changes, calibration or sizing changes, printer setup, and downstream adjustments before promising the next run.
Order-to-schedule example
Order: 120,000 ft of 6-inch HDPE SDR 11 pressure pipe, natural PE4710, due Friday. The item master carries weight per foot so footage can be planned against a pounds/hour line rate.
RunMark filters to the lines approved for 6-inch SDR 11, applies the selected line’s throughput, places the die/tooling change ahead of the run, and shows the calculated start and finish against the due date.
The floor receives one production record with line, timing, quantity, and run identity. Unit or bundle labels are generated from that same record so schedule and traceability data are not retyped.
One connected workflow
Set which pipe products each line can run and the speed for each. Make each diameter, SDR, or resin variant its own product when line fit or speed differs.
Use line- and SKU-specific output rates in pounds/hour or a consistently converted production quantity.
Enter setup minutes for each product-to-product switch on a line—resin, color, SDR, diameter, die, or downstream changes. The optimizer reserves that time before each run.
See whether calculated run timing supports the customer promise before the order reaches the floor.
Generate labels carrying product, line, run, production date, order reference, and unit sequence from the scheduled run.
Spreadsheet scheduling compared
| Spreadsheet workflow | RunMark workflow |
|---|---|
| Line eligibility lives in notes, color coding, or the scheduler’s memory. | Line/SKU capability is explicit and reusable. |
| Run duration is manually recalculated when footage, weight, or rate changes. | Timing follows the selected line’s configured throughput. |
| Labels are recreated in another template after scheduling. | Labels start from the same persisted production run. |
| Rush orders overwrite cells and hide the reason for a delivery move. | The live schedule keeps order, line, timing, and status together. |
Relevant RunMark capabilities
Start with the pipe products, lines, and active orders you already maintain. RunMark is a focused scheduling and traceability workspace—not an ERP implementation—and the trial does not require a credit card.
Pricing is one plan at $249/month or $2,490/year, with unlimited lines, orders, and SKUs, after a 30-day free trial.
Frequently asked questions
Yes. Set up HDPE and PVC pipe as separate products, each with its own eligible lines, production rates, and changeover minutes to and from other products. RunMark schedules from those settings; it does not read the resin type itself.
Keep a consistent production quantity for scheduling and use the product’s weight-per-foot relationship when converting. The public capacity calculator also requires demand and throughput to use the same selected unit.
Partly. RunMark’s optimizer uses each line’s product-to-product changeover times: it reserves the setup before each run, never places two runs closer together than their changeover allows, and weighs changeover time against due dates when choosing slots. If the optimizer is unavailable, a simpler fallback scheduler drafts the schedule instead; the draft review shows which one produced it. The fallback also reserves your changeover minutes before and after every run it places, but it places orders one at a time in due-date order instead of weighing them all together. Neither searches for the sequence with the least total changeover across the week, and both only know the changeover minutes you enter for each product pair (30 minutes if a pair is left blank)—not resin, SDR, or die attributes on their own.
Available label fields include product, production date, line, run number, unit number, order reference, part number, and company identity.
No. RunMark is designed as a focused production scheduling and traceability layer and can start from direct entry or Excel order imports.
The trial provides 30 days of access with no credit card and no automatic charge.
