What is APS?
APS (Advanced Planning and Scheduling) is a modern tool and approach that becomes indispensable for efficient production planning in the era of digital transformation and Industry 4.0. Thanks to integrated algorithms for multi-criteria optimization and a contemporary approach to scheduling problem-solving, this software allows for optimal operational production planning in a few steps, down to seconds, taking into account available resources, existing constraints, and specified priorities. APS analyzes data and responds to changes in real-time to construct an optimal plan, considering current capabilities, needs, and the state of production.
How does APS decrease costs in operations and increase profit? Key benefits of using APS:
- Improve the customer service level – deliver orders on time due to the operative control of MAD (manufacturing agreed dates).
- Increase the throughput of the enterprise - due to the optimization planning of the load on work centers, changeovers optimization, and machines utilization optimization considering alternative machines
- Reduce the level of unclaimed work in progress - due to the operational control of unclaimed WIP.
Results achieved by our Clients:
- Increase in the number of orders scheduled at the time desired by the customer up to 98%
- Increasing production throughput up to 19%
- Decreased average order operations cycle up to 6%
- Reducing machine changeover time up to 21%
- Increase bottleneck utilization up to 13%
What are APS key functions?
Planning and Scheduling:
- Work centers load balancing (assigning works to alternative work centers)
- Continuous works sequences planning
- Restricting work centers quantity for parallel work/order execution
- Early manufacturing “START DATE” restriction for SFG (e.g., waiting for cooling)
- Work orders output confirmation on Gantt Chart
- Freezing manufacturing sequence for work centers
- Planning and daily control over orders delivery dates
- Planning considering raw materials availability restriction
- Cross-plant scheduling
- Restrictions on drum sizes for work centers
- KPIs for each schedule version
- Sub-resources scheduling (work teams, etc.)
- Modeling schedules for different work patterns (e.g., Friday is a day off)
Orders and SFGs’ aggregation:
- Advanced aggregation mode, configuration of aggregation rules considering specifics for SFG groups, equipment, input & output limitations
Dispatching Work Orders, launching execution of Work Orders:
- Production and work orders calculation for: shops, shifts, work centers
- Calculating raw materials needs and transfer requests according to work orders
- Shift-wise analysis for work centers utilization
Advanced Planning and Scheduling:
- SFG batches scheduling for work centers (works assigning to work centers)
- Different schedule versions calculation according to different optimization criteria and choosing the best one
- Planner tools for work centers sequence management at Gantt Chart
