Introduction to APS - What is Advanced Planning and Scheduling?

Summary

Planet Together's Advanced Planning and Scheduling (APS) solution enhances operational efficiency by optimizing production schedules, minimizing setup times, and balancing resource constraints. It addresses challenges faced by companies with complex production environments, such as equipment limitations, skilled labor requirements, and conflicting goals across departments. By integrating sales, production, planning, and maintenance, APS enables real-time adjustments and ensures accurate order dates, on-time deliveries, and cost containment. Ultimately, it helps companies reduce production cycle times, increase machine utilization, and improve cash flow, all while meeting customer service objectives.

Takeaways

• 😀 Planet Together's Advanced Planning and Scheduling (APS) can help businesses improve their bottom line through collaboration across multiple departments, such as sales, production, planning, purchasing, and maintenance.
• 😀 Managing planning and scheduling can be complex, especially for businesses with multiple facilities, skilled labor requirements, or equipment-intensive production processes.
• 😀 Traditional MRP (Material Requirements Planning) and scheduling systems often create inefficiencies due to their two-phase approach, leading to material shortages and excess work-in-progress.
• 😀 APS addresses challenges in scheduling by optimizing the use of resources, including machines, labor, and tooling, to ensure better alignment with business goals.
• 😀 APS helps streamline operations by managing machine setup times, labor constraints, and material requirements, reducing delays and enhancing production efficiency.
• 😀 Collaboration between planners and manufacturing facilities can reduce the impact of conflicting goals and allow for faster responses to disruptions on the shop floor.
• 😀 The birdhouse and bird feeder example highlights how inefficiencies, such as equipment downtime and setup issues, can lead to missed deadlines and resource bottlenecks, which APS can solve by optimizing the schedule.
• 😀 APS enables real-time adjustments to schedules, helping planners minimize setup time, maximize resource utilization, and ensure on-time deliveries while meeting profit and cost objectives.
• 😀 By considering both labor and material constraints, APS ensures that no orders are missed, production cycles are optimized, and profitability is maximized.
• 😀 Planet Together APS is a collaborative tool that allows planners to assess the impact of disruptions and make changes with confidence, as they can always undo changes or work in a ‘what-if’ scenario.
• 😀 The benefits of APS extend to sales, production, planning, purchasing, and maintenance teams, helping to improve communication, forecast cash flows, reduce inventories, and streamline operations for greater financial efficiency.

Q & A

What is the main challenge for companies when it comes to planning and scheduling activities?

Companies face significant challenges in planning and scheduling when they produce a variety of products, operate near or above capacity, have multiple manufacturing facilities, or require skilled labor. The complexity increases as resources like equipment and labor need to be efficiently coordinated across different departments.

How does collaboration among multiple departments impact planning and scheduling?

Collaboration among multiple departments adds to the complexity of planning and scheduling. It often leads to conflicting goals, where different teams may prioritize different outcomes, making it difficult to meet overarching business objectives such as maximizing profits and minimizing inefficiencies.

What are some of the challenges companies face when managing equipment-intensive production?

In equipment-intensive production, companies often deal with machines requiring significant setup or changeovers, and some equipment may only be suitable for specific jobs. This complexity can lead to scheduling conflicts and inefficiencies when trying to allocate resources effectively.

What impact can a traditional MRP system have on scheduling?

In a traditional MRP system, material requirements are managed separately from capacity requirements, which can cause discrepancies. For example, a job might be released to the shop floor despite a material shortage, or jobs may not be rescheduled properly when delays occur, creating excess work in process and inefficiencies.

What role does setup time play in planning and scheduling?

Setup time plays a critical role in planning and scheduling, particularly when switching between different production processes, like changing paint colors in a paint booth. Failure to account for this setup time can lead to delays, inefficiencies, and missed deadlines.

How does advanced planning and scheduling (APS) optimize the production process?

Advanced planning and scheduling (APS) optimizes the production process by simultaneously considering material, labor, and capacity constraints. It helps align the schedule with business objectives such as on-time delivery, cost containment, and profit maximization, ensuring that resources are efficiently utilized.

What is the main benefit of APS in terms of production efficiency?

The main benefit of APS is its ability to optimize the production schedule, reducing delays, minimizing setup times, improving machine utilization, and ensuring that jobs are completed on time, all of which contribute to increased operational efficiency and lower costs.

How does APS help in managing disruptions on the shop floor?

APS provides planners with the tools to quickly respond to disruptions on the shop floor. By viewing the impact of changes in real-time, planners can adjust the schedule confidently, ensuring that any modifications align with the company's overall objectives.

What departments benefit from using Planet Together's APS?

Sales, production, planning, purchasing, maintenance, and management all benefit from using Planet Together's APS. Sales teams get accurate order dates, planners can manage capacity loads and material requirements efficiently, maintenance teams receive timely communication about downtime and setup, and management can forecast future cash flows.

How does Planet Together's APS impact a company's bottom line?

Planet Together's APS helps improve a company's bottom line by reducing production cycle times, improving machine utilization, lowering inventory levels, ensuring on-time deliveries, minimizing stockouts, and streamlining the order-to-cash and cash-to-cash cycles.