APS and the Steps Toward Industry 4.0

Having emerged a few years ago through public-private partnerships between the German government and innovation-leading companies in the country, the Industry 4.0 topic is on the rise in the industrial sector. The concept encompasses a number of technologies, now widespread in other economic segments, interconnected to generate solutions for manufacturing.These technologies cover automation, internet of things, robots, simulation, augmented reality, big data, additive manufacturing (3D printing, for example), cloud and artificial intelligence. All embedded in the context of industry needs.With the help of these tools, we are moving toward digital manufacturing through digitalization. That is, not only are our work objects digital, but also the processes that span the entire productive chain must be digitalized.That need is evident given that companies' processes and products are increasingly complex. In this sense, SIEMENS has been investing heavily for many years in PLM (Product Lifecycle Management) — product lifecycle management — providing solutions to give more robustness and agility to product development and production planning processes (this planning at the scope of designing the production system, not execution planning as in APS systems).With Siemens' PLM solutions, companies reduce development costs, increase product quality, better manage knowledge about their portfolio and also drastically reduce their time-to-market. Many companies today are replacing entire prototyping factories with far more effective digital solutions.

But even so, it's not enough. There's no point in developing products and processes appropriately if they can't be delivered at the right time the market expects with the necessary efficiency, since they are absorbed by a mass production system. Understanding that need, SIEMENS acquired PREACTOR APS in 2013.BUT WHAT IS APS?A few decades ago, APS (Advanced Planning and Scheduling) systems emerged to support Production Planning and Scheduling with a finite-capacity view, considering the constraints of production resources as well as those related to availability of materials for production, tooling, storage space, among other possible criteria. In addition to constraints, each industry has a series of rules to schedule its production orders, such as time limits between operations, transfers, perishability, batch breakages and controls, among many other aspects. PREACTOR is one of the pioneers of this category and, created in 1993 in England, became what it still is today: the global leader in APS solutions.Implementing an APS software brings stability to PPCP processes and confidence around delivery date promises, inventory and lead time reductions, and enables manufacturing efficiency optimizations through intelligent algorithms that can reduce, for example, setup times. The gains are truly significant and implementation is viable in countless industry segments.So, after having developed your product quickly and the right way with PLM, you can validate by A + B whether or not it can be produced in the timeframe required by the market. If not, you can simulate different scenarios to better meet those needs and have visibility over the outcome beforehand. That's APS!VISION OF THE FUTUREStill, even though we live in the present, we need to think about the future. That's why, in addition to having a cutting-edge solution in APS integrated with the most complete PLM portfolio, NEO thinks ahead and embraces Industry 4.0 technologies. We envision a future where production scheduling is autonomous, powered by artificial intelligence and advanced optimization algorithms. That way, PPCP can dedicate itself to maximum value-add activities, enabling deeper scenario analyses, becoming more present in the productive environment itself and being called upon only in situations that require human intervention.Today, NEO is proud to have customers with the same innovative mindset and willing to become early adopters in this shared vision — and the first steps of this innovation are being taken. By combining the best tools and the best people, we'll make the future become present as soon as possible![noptin-form id=2822]