Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) &
Advanced Planning Scheduling (APS)
Enhance the way you manage and optimize your business operations with state-of-the-art software solutions. Kognisens' game-changing ERP and APS solutions will get your business where it needs to go.
What is an ERP system and how does it help business?
ERP systems are key to the success of modern digital businesses of any size. They're agile, secure, and data-driven tools that handle important tasks like procurement, project management, operations, financials, and sales.
Get ahead of the game by adopting an ERP solution that suits your business needs today.
ERP - APS: Keys to Successful Material Planning and Scheduling for Manufacturers
Material planning and scheduling are two of the most challenging processes for any manufacturing company to master. While these processes typically reside in different departments, their success is highly dependent on one another. In this article, we will explore Visual South’s approach to implementing Advanced Planning and Scheduling (APS) functionality in manufacturing using Infor CloudSuite Industrial as the ERP software of reference.
Material Planning
Let's begin by considering the basic goals of a Material Planner. This list is not comprehensive, and the order is not significant, but it is a good starting point to keep things simple. Material Planners must:
- Have all raw materials available to fulfill demand on time (job orders, customer orders, transfer orders, etc.)
- Keep proper safety stock levels to account for drop-in or emergency orders
- Maintain accurate perpetual inventory
- Maintain accurate lead times
- Maintain accurate vendor pricing
- Manage "not enough" inventory vs. "too much" inventory
- Receive accurate information from Production Scheduler to ensure requirement dates have not changed
Scheduling
Now let's examine the basic goals of a Production Scheduler. Once again, we'll keep it simple and focus on the most common requirements. A Production Scheduler must:
- Align job order finish dates with customer delivery dates
- Manage capacity constraints (bottlenecks)
- Determine job priority run order
- Reduce/combine set-up time
- Determine any needs for overtime
- Manage utilization and efficiency of machine and labor resources
- Pad manufacturing lead time (let's be honest)
- Receive accurate information from Material Planning to ensure scheduled operations have the required materials
Scheduling Options in Infor CloudSuite Industrial
Any good ERP solution will offer functionality to assist with material planning and scheduling. Most packages offer specific methods for planning and scheduling. Infor CloudSuite Industrial has the flexibility to tailor the planning and scheduling process to meet the needs of nearly any manufacturer. Let's examine some of the options.
Material Requirements Planning (MRP)
MRP is an excellent tool for straightforward material planning needs. It evaluates all current and future demand against an item and compares it to all supply and expected supply. If it finds a shortage, it simply uses the lead time for the item and subtracts that number of days from the required need date. You would use the scheduling tool to plan the required dates needed by MRP.
MRP will plan a release date in the past if the required date minus the lead time is before the current day. For some companies, this is preferable because they may treat lead time more like buffer time and know they can possibly reduce it. Material requirements do not affect operation schedules in this scenario, since MRP is not constrained by the date of the current day.
Infinite Advanced Planning and Scheduling
Infor Advanced Planning and Scheduling comes in two modes with the Infor CloudSuite Industrial ERP solution: Infinite and Finite. Infinite APS assumes you have unlimited resources within a shift, while still limiting the amount of work at the operation level to what is available for the resource and shift.
For example, if the total run time to complete a particular operation on a job is 10 hours, and the resource is available for 8 hours on one shift, APS will schedule that operation to be completed over two days. APS assumes you can run an unlimited amount of 8-hour jobs on that resource, even if, in reality, it can only run one job at a time.
Infinite and Finite Advanced Planning and Scheduling
Infor Advanced Planning and Scheduling comes in two modes with the Infor CloudSuite Industrial ERP solution: Infinite and Finite. Each mode is suited to different types of manufacturing companies.
Infinite APS
Infinite APS assumes that you have unlimited resources within a shift. However, it still limits the amount of work at the operation level to what is available for the resource and shift.
For example, suppose the total run time to complete a particular operation on a job is 10 hours, and the resource is available for 8 hours on one shift. In that case, APS will schedule that operation to be completed over two days. APS assumes you can run an unlimited number of 8-hour jobs on that resource, even if, in reality, it can only run one job at a time.
Infinite APS is an excellent choice for companies that do not have resource constraints or are flexible enough to increase capacity when necessary. This mode is more common when labor determines throughput, rather than machines.
Finite APS
Finite APS is similar to Infinite APS, with one primary difference: it recognizes that a resource has finite capacity and cannot complete more work in a shift than the sum of the total available resources and shifts required by an operation.
For example, suppose you have two jobs with a total run time of 8 hours each and both need to go through the same resource at the same time, but only one resource exists on the shift. In that case, it will take two days to complete both jobs (assuming one shift). Finite APS will not schedule both jobs to go through the resource at the same time like Infinite APS would.
Finite APS is an excellent choice for companies that are resource capacity constrained and require more realistic control and scheduling of the constraints. This mode is more common when machines determine total run hours, as opposed to labor being the long pole.
Benefits of Both Modes
Both Infinite and Finite APS do both scheduling and material requirements planning synchronously. At the same time they determine the scheduled start and stop times of the operations, they also create the planned orders for the materials, aligning the required dates with the operation start dates.
Regardless of infinite or finite, APS will always use the current day’s date as a hard stop and won’t plan a release prior to that. Even with infinite capacity, if a required material for an operation has a lead time of 10 days, and there is no other supply available, the soonest the associated job operation can start is in 10 days. APS does a “pull” or “backward” schedule from the job due date to determine each operation start date. If the first operation start date is before the current day, it then performs a “push” or “forward” schedule. Material availability is a constraint in APS (unlike MRP), so an operation cannot be scheduled until APS determines a supply due date for any materials needed at the operation.
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) &
Advanced Planning Scheduling (APS)
Enhance the way you manage and optimize your business operations with state-of-the-art software solutions. Kognisens' game-changing ERP and APS solutions will get your business where it needs to go.
What is an ERP system and how does it help business?
ERP systems are key to the success of modern digital businesses of any size. They're agile, secure, and data-driven tools that handle important tasks like procurement, project management, operations, financials, and sales.
Get ahead of the game by adopting an ERP solution that suits your business needs today.
ERP - APS: Keys to Successful Material Planning and Scheduling for Manufacturers
Material planning and scheduling are two of the most challenging processes for any manufacturing company to master. While these processes typically reside in different departments, their success is highly dependent on one another. In this article, we will explore Visual South’s approach to implementing Advanced Planning and Scheduling (APS) functionality in manufacturing using Infor CloudSuite Industrial as the ERP software of reference.
Material Planning
Let's begin by considering the basic goals of a Material Planner. This list is not comprehensive, and the order is not significant, but it is a good starting point to keep things simple. Material Planners must:
- Have all raw materials available to fulfill demand on time (job orders, customer orders, transfer orders, etc.)
- Keep proper safety stock levels to account for drop-in or emergency orders
- Maintain accurate perpetual inventory
- Maintain accurate lead times
- Maintain accurate vendor pricing
- Manage "not enough" inventory vs. "too much" inventory
- Receive accurate information from Production Scheduler to ensure requirement dates have not changed
Scheduling
Now let's examine the basic goals of a Production Scheduler. Once again, we'll keep it simple and focus on the most common requirements. A Production Scheduler must:
- Align job order finish dates with customer delivery dates
- Manage capacity constraints (bottlenecks)
- Determine job priority run order
- Reduce/combine set-up time
- Determine any needs for overtime
- Manage utilization and efficiency of machine and labor resources
- Pad manufacturing lead time (let's be honest)
- Receive accurate information from Material Planning to ensure scheduled operations have the required materials
Scheduling Options in Infor CloudSuite Industrial
Any good ERP solution will offer functionality to assist with material planning and scheduling. Most packages offer specific methods for planning and scheduling. Infor CloudSuite Industrial has the flexibility to tailor the planning and scheduling process to meet the needs of nearly any manufacturer. Let's examine some of the options.
Material Requirements Planning (MRP)
MRP is an excellent tool for straightforward material planning needs. It evaluates all current and future demand against an item and compares it to all supply and expected supply. If it finds a shortage, it simply uses the lead time for the item and subtracts that number of days from the required need date. You would use the scheduling tool to plan the required dates needed by MRP.
MRP will plan a release date in the past if the required date minus the lead time is before the current day. For some companies, this is preferable because they may treat lead time more like buffer time and know they can possibly reduce it. Material requirements do not affect operation schedules in this scenario, since MRP is not constrained by the date of the current day.
Infinite Advanced Planning and Scheduling
Infor Advanced Planning and Scheduling comes in two modes with the Infor CloudSuite Industrial ERP solution: Infinite and Finite. Infinite APS assumes you have unlimited resources within a shift, while still limiting the amount of work at the operation level to what is available for the resource and shift.
For example, if the total run time to complete a particular operation on a job is 10 hours, and the resource is available for 8 hours on one shift, APS will schedule that operation to be completed over two days. APS assumes you can run an unlimited amount of 8-hour jobs on that resource, even if, in reality, it can only run one job at a time.
Infinite and Finite Advanced Planning and Scheduling
Infor Advanced Planning and Scheduling comes in two modes with the Infor CloudSuite Industrial ERP solution: Infinite and Finite. Each mode is suited to different types of manufacturing companies.
Infinite APS
Infinite APS assumes that you have unlimited resources within a shift. However, it still limits the amount of work at the operation level to what is available for the resource and shift.
For example, suppose the total run time to complete a particular operation on a job is 10 hours, and the resource is available for 8 hours on one shift. In that case, APS will schedule that operation to be completed over two days. APS assumes you can run an unlimited number of 8-hour jobs on that resource, even if, in reality, it can only run one job at a time.
Infinite APS is an excellent choice for companies that do not have resource constraints or are flexible enough to increase capacity when necessary. This mode is more common when labor determines throughput, rather than machines.
Finite APS
Finite APS is similar to Infinite APS, with one primary difference: it recognizes that a resource has finite capacity and cannot complete more work in a shift than the sum of the total available resources and shifts required by an operation.
For example, suppose you have two jobs with a total run time of 8 hours each and both need to go through the same resource at the same time, but only one resource exists on the shift. In that case, it will take two days to complete both jobs (assuming one shift). Finite APS will not schedule both jobs to go through the resource at the same time like Infinite APS would.
Finite APS is an excellent choice for companies that are resource capacity constrained and require more realistic control and scheduling of the constraints. This mode is more common when machines determine total run hours, as opposed to labor being the long pole.
Benefits of Both Modes
Both Infinite and Finite APS do both scheduling and material requirements planning synchronously. At the same time they determine the scheduled start and stop times of the operations, they also create the planned orders for the materials, aligning the required dates with the operation start dates.
Regardless of infinite or finite, APS will always use the current day’s date as a hard stop and won’t plan a release prior to that. Even with infinite capacity, if a required material for an operation has a lead time of 10 days, and there is no other supply available, the soonest the associated job operation can start is in 10 days. APS does a “pull” or “backward” schedule from the job due date to determine each operation start date. If the first operation start date is before the current day, it then performs a “push” or “forward” schedule. Material availability is a constraint in APS (unlike MRP), so an operation cannot be scheduled until APS determines a supply due date for any materials needed at the operation.