Advanced planning and scheduling (APS, also known as advanced manufacturing) refers to a manufacturing management process by which raw materials and production capacity are optimally allocated to meet demand.

Advanced planning and scheduling system is especially well-suited to environments where simpler planning methods cannot adequately address complex trade-offs between competing priorities. Production scheduling is intrinsically very difficult due to the (approximately) factorial dependence of the size of the solution space on the number of items/products to be manufactured.

Advanced planning and scheduling software is offered as an extension of your ERP and when the two systems operate together, production is enhanced dramatically. Advanced planning system has been utilized by large production facilities since they were available. Large operations have always been in need of APS software, which has allowed for the misconception that small manufacturing operations do not necessarily need it.

Not only does advanced scheduling software consider material, but it has the ability to perform bill of material explosions which net on hand inventory and net projected inventory receipts through purchase orders and manufacturing orders. Once inventory is netted, advanced production planning and scheduling software creates purchase orders and manufacturing orders to satisfy demand based on safety stock levels and lot sizing logic. When scheduling, advanced planning software dynamically allocates inventory and projected inventory receipts to production orders. If material is made constraining, the software then delays production based on the available of inventory generated by allocated orders.

Implementation of an advanced scheduling system can allow your operation to be able to adequately compete against much larger size manufacturing operations through schedule optimization, market analysis, order anticipation, and many more capabilities. This is how you can separate yourself from other small manufacturing competitors and optimize your production facility quickly and efficiently.

APS Advanced Planning and Scheduling Software’s enhanced functionality helps you:

• extend the planning and scheduling horizon for as long as there is demand to drive it. Since demand includes sales orders and forecasts, the only practical limits are forecast accuracy and computer processing speeds.
• quickly make accurate deliver commitments to customers. Called Capable-to-Promise (CTP), this feature often replaces the inaccurate, infinite scheduling based Available-to-Promise (ATP) features in ERP systems.
• dynamically allocate and re-allocate inventory to upper level demand.
• perform multi-plant planning and scheduling which answers questions such as “in which plant should this production be sited?”
• plan throughout the supply chain.