Planify and Excellerant have announced a strategic partnership aimed at connecting real-time shop-floor machine data with finite, constraint-aware production scheduling. The collaboration is designed to help job shops and discrete manufacturers connect what is happening on the factory floor with what should happen next in production planning.
The partnership brings together Excellerant’s machine monitoring and IIoT capabilities with Planify’s finite scheduling software, creating a potential closed-loop workflow between machine-level production data and scheduling decisions.
Key Facts
- Companies: Planify and Excellerant
- Announcement: September 15, 2026
- Location: Chicago, Illinois
- Focus: Real-time machine data and finite production scheduling
- Target users: Job shops and discrete manufacturers
- Excellerant: Machine data, monitoring and communications platform
- Planify: Finite scheduling software for to-order manufacturers
- Planned collaboration: Joint work with select shared manufacturing customers
- Integration status: Technical scope and integration details are expected to be defined in the coming months
What Is the Planify and Excellerant Partnership?
Planify and Excellerant are combining two areas of manufacturing software that traditionally operate separately: shop-floor visibility and production scheduling.
Excellerant collects real-time information from CNC machines and other shop-floor devices, including machine status, cycle times, part counts, downtime events and operator input. The platform can also synchronize shop-floor information with ERP and MES systems.
Planify uses production information alongside manufacturing constraints such as setups, changeovers, shift limitations, job dependencies and disruptions to create finite production schedules.
The companies say their partnership is intended to connect these two workflows so that production schedules can better reflect the actual condition of the factory floor.
Why Real-Time Machine Data Matters for Production Scheduling
Traditional production schedules can become outdated when conditions on the shop floor change.
A machine may experience unexpected downtime. A job may take longer than expected. Production quantities may change, or an operator may report an event that affects the planned sequence.
When production information and scheduling systems are disconnected, planners may need to manually identify these changes and update schedules.
The proposed Planify-Excellerant connection is designed to reduce this gap by bringing real-time shop-floor information into the scheduling process.
Instead of relying exclusively on static production assumptions, planners could potentially work with scheduling information that reflects current machine conditions and job progress.
Four Potential Manufacturing Use Cases
1. Live Disruption Replanning
One proposed use case is connecting Excellerant machine-status and downtime information with Planify’s scheduling engine.
If a machine goes down or a production job falls behind, the information could be used to reprioritize the production schedule.
This could help planners respond to disruptions without relying entirely on manual schedule updates.
2. Data-Informed Scheduling
Actual production data can provide a more detailed picture of how long manufacturing operations take.
Excellerant captures information such as cycle time and runtime. The companies envision using this information to improve scheduling accuracy by incorporating actual machine-performance data rather than relying solely on estimated run times.
3. Closed-Loop Production Progress Tracking
Another proposed capability is synchronizing job progress and part counts captured on the shop floor with Planify’s scheduling environment.
This could allow planners to see production progress and identify jobs that may be at risk without requiring as many manual updates.
4. Connecting Machine Activity With Scheduling Decisions
The partnership also aims to connect two different views of manufacturing operations.
Excellerant provides visibility into what is happening on machines and across the shop floor, while Planify focuses on determining what should happen next based on production constraints.
Connecting these workflows could provide manufacturers with a more continuous path from machine data → production status → scheduling decision.
What Changes for CNC Job Shops?
For CNC job shops, production planning can involve multiple machines, different setups, changing priorities, material availability, operator constraints and varying cycle times.
Real-time machine information can provide planners with additional operational context.
For example, a production schedule may assume that a machine is available for a particular job. If that machine experiences unexpected downtime, the schedule may need to change.
Under the proposed partnership, machine information from Excellerant could become an input into Planify’s scheduling workflow, allowing the schedule to respond to production-floor events.
However, the companies have not yet announced a completed technical integration. The specific integration scope is expected to be defined during the coming months.
From Static Scheduling to a Connected Production Loop
The larger idea behind the partnership is the creation of a closed-loop manufacturing planning workflow.
A simplified model looks like this:
Machine activity
↓
Real-time production data
↓
Production status and disruptions
↓
Finite scheduling analysis
↓
Updated production priorities
↓
Shop-floor execution
This approach connects operational data with planning rather than treating the production schedule as an isolated document.
For manufacturers operating complex job-shop environments, the ability to connect actual production conditions with scheduling decisions can be particularly relevant because the production environment can change throughout a shift.
Planify’s Role in the Partnership
Planify develops finite scheduling software for to-order manufacturers.
According to the announcement, the platform sits between traditional ERP modules and other manufacturing data sources. Its scheduling environment is designed around finite scheduling logic and provides planners with a spreadsheet-style workspace.
Planify says its onboarding approach starts with a manufacturer’s real work orders rather than relying on a standardized demonstration environment.
Excellerant’s Role in the Partnership
Excellerant provides a real-time machine data and communications platform for manufacturing operations.
Its platform is designed to connect machine tools across different brands, manufacturers, models and ages while integrating real-time information with ERP and MES environments.
The company also provides shop-floor and executive-level communication and dashboard capabilities.
Excellerant is headquartered in Ellington, Connecticut, and describes itself as a veteran-owned small business.
What Happens Next?
The partnership is still in its development phase.
Planify and Excellerant said the specific technical scope and integration will be defined in the coming months, with early collaboration planned alongside select shared manufacturing customers.
The companies also plan to provide additional information about joint capabilities and customer pilots as the relationship develops.
This means manufacturers should distinguish between the partnership announcement and capabilities that have already been technically deployed. The announcement describes several potential use cases, but it does not state that all of these workflows are currently available as a completed integration.
Why This Partnership Matters for Manufacturing Software
Manufacturing companies increasingly use multiple digital systems across ERP, MES, machine monitoring, scheduling and shop-floor operations.
The challenge is not simply collecting more data. The value comes from connecting that data to operational decisions.
The Planify and Excellerant partnership targets this connection between real-time execution data and production planning.
If the planned integration develops as described, manufacturers could have a more connected workflow in which machine events influence scheduling decisions and scheduling information provides planners with a clearer view of expected production.
For CNC job shops and other discrete manufacturers, this represents an important direction in manufacturing software: moving from isolated digital tools toward connected production workflows.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Planify?
Planify is a finite scheduling software company focused on to-order manufacturers. Its platform is designed to help manufacturing planners build schedules using finite scheduling logic and production constraints.
What is Excellerant?
Excellerant is a real-time machine data and communications platform for manufacturers. It connects machine tools and shop-floor devices and can integrate production data with ERP and MES systems.
What is finite scheduling?
Finite scheduling creates production schedules while considering real-world limitations such as machine capacity, setups, changeovers, shifts, job dependencies and other manufacturing constraints.
What does the Planify and Excellerant partnership aim to achieve?
The partnership aims to connect real-time shop-floor machine data from Excellerant with Planify’s finite scheduling capabilities, helping production schedules respond to actual manufacturing conditions.
Will Planify schedules automatically change when a machine goes down?
Automatic disruption replanning is identified as a potential use case in the announcement. However, the companies said the specific technical integration scope will be defined in the coming months, so the announcement does not establish that fully automatic replanning is currently available.
Which manufacturers could benefit from the partnership?
The companies specifically identify job shops and discrete manufacturers as the target audience for the collaboration.
Is the Planify-Excellerant integration already available?
The announcement describes a strategic partnership and planned collaboration. The companies said the technical scope will be defined in the coming months, with early work planned alongside select shared manufacturing customers.
The Bigger Manufacturing Trend
The manufacturing technology stack is becoming increasingly connected.
Machine monitoring provides visibility. ERP systems manage business and production information. MES platforms connect manufacturing execution. Scheduling software determines production sequences and priorities.
The next challenge is connecting these systems so that information can move continuously between what the factory planned, what the factory is doing and what the factory should do next.
The Planify and Excellerant partnership is targeting exactly that connection.
As manufacturers continue adopting IIoT, real-time machine monitoring and advanced scheduling, integrations between these technologies could become increasingly important for improving production visibility and responsiveness.
Machina Today will continue tracking the development of the Planify-Excellerant partnership and any customer pilots or technical integration details announced by the companies.
