Advanced planning and scheduling

Advanced Planning & Scheduling (also referred to as APS and Advanced Manufacturing) refers to a manufacturing management process by which raw materials and production capacity are optimally allocated to meet demand. APS is especially well-suited to environments where simpler planning methods cannot adequately address complex trade-offs between competing priorities.

Traditional planning and scheduling systems (such as Manufacturing resource planning) utilize a stepwise procedure to allocate material and production capacity. This approach is simple but cumbersome, and does not readily adapt to changes in demand, resource capacity or material availability. Materials and capacity are planned separately, and many systems do not consider limited material availability or capacity constraints. Thus, this approach often results in plans that cannot be executed. However, despite attempts to shift to the new system, attempts have not always been successful, which has called for the combination of management philosophy with manufacturing [cite book | last = Wagoner | first = April | title = Plant Floor Scheduling Systems in a Lean Environment | publisher = NCSU | date = 2007 | location = Raleigh | url = http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/theses/available/etd-03222007-110734/unrestricted/etd.pdf] .

Unlike previous systems, APS simultaneously plans and schedules production based on available materials, labor and plant capacity.

APS has commonly been applied where one or more of the following conditions are present:
#Make-To-Order (as distinct from make-to-stock) manufacturing
#capital-intensive production processes, where plant capacity is constrained
#products 'competing' for plant capacity: where many different products are produced in each facility
#products that require a large number of components or manufacturing tasks
#production necessitates frequent schedule changes which cannot be predicted before the event

Advanced Planning & Scheduling software enables manufacturing scheduling and advanced scheduling optimization within these environments.

See also

* Enterprise resource planning
* Manufacturing resource planning
* Scheduling (production processes)

References

External links

* [http://supplychain.ittoolbox.com/topics/t.asp?t=353&p=353&h1=353 IT toolbox] Peer reviewed industry and academic literature with topics including constraint-based planning, simulation, optimisation and machine set-up and sequencing.
* [http://www.productionscheduling.com Production Scheduling Portal] Information about scheduling: online resources, books, software and a scheduling community forum.
* [http://www.productionplanning.com Production Planning Portal] A web-based resource for the latest production planning news, articles and information.
* [http://www.planningengineers.org/ Planning Engineers Organisation] Global professional association serving planners and schedulers.
* [http://www.taylor.com/ The Taylor Group] The Taylor Group has been implementing advanced planning and production scheduling solutions with manufacturers around the world since 1989.