APS (AdvancedPlanning and Scheduling) refers to the advanced planning and scheduling of balanced supply chain and various resources in the production process, giving the optimal production and scheduling plan in different supply chain and production bottleneck stages, achieving rapid planning and scheduling. Rapid response to changes in demand.
The APS system was originally designed to perform calculations and optimizations of production planning schedules within a company's scope, and was later extended to supply chain planning, including the needs of suppliers, distributors, and shipping points. Different APS software vendors choose different optimization algorithms to build their own advanced planning system software, and need to decide which algorithm engine to use according to different problems.
Each software company also launched APS software in time. Despite the wide variety, most APSs can find common structural features. In general, APS consists of several software modules, which are in turn divided into several components, each of which performs a specific scheduled task.
The SCOR model addresses the most important tasks in a supply chain plan and categorizes them in two aspects, the planning horizon and the supply chain process. 
A specific part of the SCP matrix (such as mid-term procurement, production, and distribution plans) is typically processed by its own software modules. The names of these modules vary by APS vendor, but the planned tasks they support are essentially the same. Usually APS does not support all scheduled tasks. Currently, we only have a general understanding of the software module structure and the planning tasks involved:
Strategic Network Plan includes all four long-term plans, especially those related to plant location and physical distribution structure (strategical sales), such as those in a market. The product can also be included. Basically, the plan determines the supply chain design and the flow of basic materials between the supplier and the customer.
Further tasks of the strategic sales plan (such as long-term demand forecasting) and mid-term sales plans are generally supported by the Demand Planning module. Most APS software vendors offer demand fulfillment and CTP (DemandFulfillment & CTP) components, which we use to develop short-term sales planning (short-termsalesplanning).
MasterPlanning coordinates procurement, production and distribution at the level of the medium-term plan. Distribution plans, capacity plans, and mid-term staffing are generally considered. In addition, it also supports the master production plan (Masterproductionscheduling).
If the task of developing Production Planning and Scheduling is undertaken by two different modules, the first module is responsible for determining the production batch (lotsizing) and the second module is for the development of machine scheduling (Machinescheduling) and shop floor control ( Shopfloorcontrol). But in general, these three tasks are handled by a single module. Because of the very detailed nature, the plans developed at the short-term planning level are particularly affected by the organizational structure of the production system. Therefore, all bottlenecks must be clarified. If a company adopts a multi-level production process and product structure, it must also coordinate it in an integrated management manner. To meet the specific requirements of specific industries, some software vendors offer other types of production planning and scheduling modules.
The short-term transportation plan (transportplanning) is done by the corresponding module. Sometimes, a distribution planning module is added to develop a more detailed material flow plan than the main plan.
The work of BOM and BOM (explosion and Odering of material) is often left to the ERP system, which is traditionally used to support these functions, and in any case the work is done by the trading system. As for those non-bottleneck materials, it is entirely possible to expand the BOM within the ERP system. However, the ERP system cannot support “advanced†procurement plans for raw materials and components. These plans should cover the upper and lower limits of alternative suppliers, quantity discounts, and supply. The upper limit is affected by insufficient raw material supply, and the lower limit is affected by the medium-term supply agreement. )And other factors. Only a few APS vendors have introduced a special Purchasing & Material Requirements Planning module that directly supports (mid-term) short-term purchasing decisions. Sometimes there is at least one Collaboration module that helps accelerate the procurement process of interaction (collaboration) between traditional manufacturers and their suppliers. However, there are not many such "advanced" modules.
The APS modules are dedicated to decision making. However, there are uncertainties in the system's input information (inbound, vendor unreliable, machine failure) and output information (outbound, unknown customer demand). In order to withstand this uncertainty, it is necessary to use a buffer system, either to maintain a safety stock or to set a safe time. Buffering uncertainty is the work that involves the entire supply chain process, and it is virtually impossible to assign this work to any single module, because buffering or tolerance varies by industry and manufacturing strategy. Multi-layered optimized safety inventory calculations and allocations are typically handled in the demand planning module.
There are big differences in the planning work of supply chains in different industries. This is especially true for short-term planning work. APS software vendors are gradually realizing this. Therefore, they provide several components, even several modules, for the same type of supply chain. Software modules can be thought of as some sort of "planning package." Users can purchase, install, and use the modules that are needed for their business. In most cases, it is not necessary to install all the modules provided by the APS supplier. Sometimes (but not often), you can also combine APS modules from different vendors.
Alternatively, some APS vendors do not provide all the software modules needed to plan a job, and it seems that they are interested in providing a complete solution. At this point, you can launch a collaboration module between the supplier and the customer. More often, APS vendors bundle APS modules with ERP and CRM software to form a comprehensive supply chain management software. Therefore, when you are browsing the pages of various software companies, it is sometimes difficult to find the planning modules (especially functional) in the software, and it is difficult to confirm the APS structure mentioned above. Therefore, in many cases, there are three cases where APS terminology is not seen. One is included in the SCM supply chain module; the other is included in the MOM production operation module modified by MES manufacturing; the third is that the ERP plan MRPII already has APS Planning logic.
Sometimes software modules are also used to perform some of the planned tasks that were not in the original design. For example, a distribution planning plan can be developed using the master planning module. This can happen if the model features of each module are very similar and the same calculations can be used to solve different types of problems. In addition to the software modules already mentioned, vendors often provide additional software components to coordinate the work of different modules, while also being used in conjunction with other software systems such as ERP systems or database DataWarehouse.
However, doing technical preparation to establish information links between different software modules is only the first step. The key question is which information should flow to which point in time. So the problem is designing and implementing planning concepts that will coordinate those software modules in the most efficient way, based on the goals of the enterprise and the entire supply chain. And must meet the special planning requirements of different types of supply chains. Typically, APS vendors provide solutions for specific industries, which means they design a software module to better serve an industry.
Software vendors also often provide (usually using Internet technology) tools for the integrated management of supply chain partners located in different locations. These software components provide the necessary data for medium- and long-term plans throughout the supply chain and deliver the results of the centralized plan to each unit. In most cases, there is an alert system to centralize the interaction between the plan and the respective plan. Because the Internet and cloud computing technologies can be used for a variety of purposes, APS vendors will provide more and more e-commerce tools, such as the tools used to open virtual markets for raw materials.
The supply chain focuses on “collaboration†rather than market-based coordination. The market mainly completes the coordination between two or more parties through the price mechanism. Therefore, the essence of coordination is competition, and the focus of collaboration or joint planning (Collaborative Planning) is the cooperation pursued by supply chain management.
And collaboration with suppliers. From the perspective of a member of the supply chain, collaboration between the two parties is important to their SCP array (sales and procurement). The difference between the two collaborations is that the collaboration with the customer is a divergent structure, and the collaboration with the supplier is a convergent structure.
One of the main applications of Sales Collaboration is mid-term collaborative demand planning, where the two parties make joint predictions in an iterative manner. In this process, predictions need to be coordinated and adjusted, such as by trial, rather than just summarizing data. Especially in the case of out-of-stocks, short-term joint forecasting supports the common CTP process by providing additional information on alternative product configurations, delivery dates and prices.
The task of the Procurement Collaboration process is to agree on a procurement plan that is derived from the master plan. Companies need to decompose the total amount of products and allocate them according to the supply capabilities of each supplier. An iterative collaborative process is a good way to evaluate a vendor's capabilities and make the most of it. Therefore, it is possible to generate procurement plans and delivery schedules that avoid material shortages.
Supply chain modeling of APS systems to support long-term to short-term decisions. The integrated management of planned scheduling tasks related to the order fulfillment process has led us into a new era of intelligence, an era of planning for the entire enterprise, the entire supply chain and production process activities.
Therefore, the fruitful results of the APS system are not only reflected in the three key elements of competitiveness, cost, quality and time. Will also make:
1, the process is more transparent
2, increase flexibility
3. Discover the constraints of the system
Information that is readily available throughout the supply chain and production process will result in a more transparent order fulfillment process. This allows companies and supply chains to provide customers with accurate information about the status of their orders. The system can also issue a warning in time if the order delivery is delayed due to an unexpected event. But before that, policy makers are also looking for and examining other ways to fulfill orders, either by shipping from other warehouses or other factories, or by providing more advanced accessories.
Not only that, transparent processes can reduce waste across the supply chain and manufacturing value chain, because waste caused by excessive inventory or resource utilization can be discovered in time, and improved methods can be proposed. More importantly, the optimization of the APS system can minimize waste from the start.
As the market and customer expectations change rapidly, the supply chain and production process must not only respond to these changes, but also anticipate new trends. Sometimes it is possible for key members of the entire supply chain and production process to achieve this effect. At other times, flexibility begins to play an important role.
Flexibility can be discussed in two ways:
First, it can respond to changes in actual demand on the basis of existing inventory levels, equipment and personnel. Second, over time, supply chain and manufacturing are adjusted with changes in the market. This is called agility. The APS system can support both aspects at the same time. For example, the CTP module can give the most efficient way to utilize current inventory. Similarly, the production planning and scheduling module can quickly optimize the new order combination again. The APS system also enhances the flexibility of the supply chain because the frozen (unchangeable) time span is significantly reduced. Finally, the medium-term master plan not only coordinates the decentralized decision-making units, but also plans over time to maintain reasonable flexibility.
To improve competitiveness, the key to the continuous improvement process is to discover the constraints of the system. System constraints can be found at different levels of planning. For example, the medium-term master plan not only gives the best solution under the established conditions, but also reveals the bottleneck factor, which is the factor that prevents us from achieving higher goals. Finding ways to remove the constraints can further enhance the competitiveness of the company. In this way, we can find several options to choose from. Compared with the past, it is no longer a matter of weeks to give a solution and find an answer, but only a matter of hours. As a result, managers and planners can work more closely and effectively than ever before.
Some people think that some of the above observations are just fantasy, but as some successful practices have shown, some industries have used APS and have shown significant progress. In order to expand success to more enterprise manufacturing processes and supply chains, there are three main issues that must be addressed:
1. Improve the ability of APS system to model and solve problems
2. Extend the application range of APS system from workshop equipment to multi-center supply chain
3. Provide special training to managers, employees and consultants
As most APS systems are still evolving, we hope to introduce more features in the near future, but the standard structure of the model will remain stable. The experience of some models shows that there are some limitations to the modeling of a given production process, because the supply chain must adapt quickly to new market trends, so the model should be easy to learn and implement quickly, supporting on-demand individuality. SOA architecture for demand. Similarly, it is hoped that all systems provided by the same APS system provider will use similar languages ​​(unfortunately, this is not the case).
In addition, we also found that not all generated models can solve the problem in a reasonable time, or can not give a satisfactory solution, but the small changes to the model can significantly improve its ability to solve problems. Therefore, we are still looking for ways to increase the model capacity and effectively solve the larger problem.
To date, APS systems are best suited for centralized control of supply chain planning and intelligent production scheduling. Although in principle, implementing APS on a multi-center supply chain does not have any problem of information exchange, we cannot assume that everyone is willing to operate on the basis of “at a glance†(such as cost and available production capacity). Although a joint plan has been introduced, awareness of how to adjust the plans developed by different planners is still in its infancy. Recently, some suggestions have been made, such as the interface between two adjacent plan entities in the supply chain as a "proxy" relationship.
However, in the face of multi-variety and small-volume customization and large-scale customization of complex systems, centralized optimization under complex factors has been divided and ruled, that is, distributed optimization. Therefore, APS must also support Industry 4.0's distributed manufacturing agent agent program to achieve centralized and decentralized intelligent collaboration. That is, the loose coupling integration of SCP, APS, CPS, and PCS. With the maturity of the industrial CPS platform, the true intelligent manufacturing distributed multi-agent paradigm can be realized, intelligently satisfying customer service.
With the involvement of AI artificial intelligence in the APS system, especially the deep learning of AI, the APS model algorithm can be self-improved, and it can be highly flexible in the manufacturing process, and truly autonomous and distributed system intelligent autonomy. But you have to go through three hurdles:
1. Refining the data model of industrial knowledge scene training
2, can store a large enough amount of data
3. Learning speed, ability and cost of learning, etc.
In order to use APS more effectively, managers and employees must receive special training that enables them to interpret solutions that identify interfaces to the rest of the supply chain, establish assumptions, and respond appropriately to warnings. In addition to the basic knowledge of project management, change management, and information science, current consultants must have knowledge and experience in modeling supply chain and manufacturing for different modules of APS. The model can neither be too detailed nor too general, it must support the decision system, and it must have certain computing power. Incomplete models can not only improve but also weaken the effectiveness of supply chain and manufacturing.
The introduction of APS is not simply about adding new software packages to the company's existing software. Rather, it will replace many of the so-called planning software of the past. At the same time, some decisions that used to involve multiple employees (such as scheduling for the shop) will be automatically generated. As a result, some employees will be transferred to other positions, which may cause some resistance. On the other hand, APS's powerful optimization capabilities will result in better planning than before, and will be accompanied by graphical interactive methods to produce results for other programs to make people more satisfied.
Finally, we must keep in mind that the introduction of the APS system will change the way companies or supply chains and production operations work. Business processes that meet different market segments should be reflected in the organizational structure. In order to achieve optimal supply chain and production, without falling into the trap of suboptimal, companies that include different legal entities or profit centers, including the most recent biological organizations such as amoeba, must establish an effective reward mechanism. Some recent cases of APS implementation projects prove that the above recommendations should be taken seriously.
Some APS users may find that the vendor's commitment, consultants, and APS software capabilities are somewhat biased toward their expectations. In order to make the views of each member more realistic, a good way is to find a template. Similarly, great dreams cannot be achieved overnight, and the introduction of supply chain management (SCM), intelligent manufacturing ideas, and software support systems seems to be more timely.
Recently, under the trend of digital factory transformation and intelligent manufacturing, APS suppliers have worked very hard to combine the planning of various industries and the capabilities of APS, such as solving the problem of multi-level supply chain security inventory or introducing different batches at different planning levels. The problem of scale, especially the complex optimization scheduling of the workshop. A further strategy for better adaptation is to design a personalized model that focuses only on the specific needs of a particular industry.
Supply Chain Management (SCM) is closely related to smart manufacturing and APS with new developments in information technology and communication technology. Due to the rapid development of cloud computing, e-commerce and the Internet, the Internet of Things, and big data technology, the order fulfillment process needs to face new challenges.
Now, we must revisit topics such as “Supply Chain Implementation†or “Digital Factory Transformationâ€. Now, some software vendors even claim that APS is only part of a large software package. Nevertheless, we should still keep in mind that APS is an optimization engine for supply chain and production planning. Integrating modules and data streams remains a daunting task. As for the future development of SCM and MES as a whole, under the drive of Industry 4.0, people will see that SCM will not only focus on the order execution and fulfillment process, but also integrate its adjacent processes, such as PLM, MES/MOM, EAM, QMS. , WMS, BI, BPM and other processes.
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