7 myths about APS

Something that draws the attention of academic and professional audiences is the lack of bibliography specifically addressing the topic of APS. And basically, what you find online is material with a commercial bias (a bias we try not to undermine content like this on our blog, but anyway, here we are). The natural consequence of this is limited knowledge of the general public on the subject, who end up learning about APS in two main ways: in practice, by actually using and/or implementing one of these solutions in their work with the help of a specialist consultancy; or through word of mouth, by speaking with people in the first group or even attending a lecture at an event. And this is how myths arise. Let's look at some of them: 1. With APS, I will stop delaying my orders and generating stockouts. Contrary to the joke that teaches us to put 50 clowns in a taxi, a factory does not have infinite capacity. Possibly the greatest trick of APS is actually working with finite capacity, that is, considering the limits and constraints of a production system to be able to assess what will be possible to produce within the desired deadlines or not. At the mes time, APS will seek to do this in an optimized within the chosen heuristics, which actually generates greater efficiency and allows for more with the mes (or less) effort. However, this last advantage leads some people to believe that delays will simply disappear, as will disruptions for those producing for inventory. In some cases, there is clearly a lack of capacity, and mes optimizing the factory's scheduling mes be useful for simulating capacity increases in specific sectors and assisting with Capacity Planning so that, in the medium/long term, delays and disruptions are truly eliminated. 2. APS will automatically schedule my factory whenever there is an unforeseen issue in my production throughout the day. The programming process within APS software is constantly improving. It starts with a practical and effective process for PPC to achieve agility and good results from the very beginning, and gradually evolves with automations that are only captured through continued use of the solution. Ultimately, we can reach the point of generating fully autonomous programming, which does not depend on human intervention. However, this is a long path, and mes then, it is a discreet process with limits. In most cases, the APS user performs programming once or twice a day, and even when there is a major unforeseen event in the factory, be it a machine breakdown or a parachute order. It is also important that there is no constant minute-by-minute reprogramming; otherwise, the programming becomes, as we call it, very "jumpy," constantly changing sequences. In this sense, it is good to have a frozen programming horizon and try to avoid continuous changes to mes . Ultimately, if there is a specific short-term problem on the shop floor, the factory itself will be the one to resolve it. 3. APS only works if we have 100% of our engineering records updated and correct. This is possibly the most common finding, and the one that will never be true. No industry will always have 100% of its records correct and up-to-date (here, we're talking about engineering records such as manufacturing schedules with process times and resource alternatives, as well as product structures). Since a factory is also constantly changing, even mes great study can be out of date after just three mes . To minimize the impacts of these imperfections intrinsic to reality, the ideal is to monitor schedule adherence—that is, how well the schedule is executed. If adherence is low, the main reasons may be poorly designed scheduling rules, resistance on the shop floor to follow the schedule due to power struggles, inconsistent production performance indicators, inefficiencies, or times and resource groups with registration issues. By isolating the other causes, you can identify where your records may be experiencing the most problems and create task forces to resolve them. Finally, using APS is also very effective for identifying problems because it's very visual. If, for example, a production time is significantly higher than it should be, the Gantt chart itself will immediately identify the problem, showing one operation to be superior to the others. [caption id="attachment_2065" align="aligncenter" width="522"]

If you rely on all the records before you start, you'll probably never get started.[/caption] 4. APS will help me analyze my historical efficiency (OEE) and diagnose production problems. The word "scheduling" already implies that it's about the future. An APS system focuses on scheduling orders/demand for the future. In other words, the past isn't the main focus in this process. Of course, it can help, especially the short-term past. NEO uses short-term shop floor records to generate schedule adherence insights (the KPI discussed in the previous section), which is extremely useful. However, you can't expect APS to store years of history and provide detailed analysis of this history. Technically, it's entirely possible, but it's a different solution scope, much more focused on Production Control and MES (Manufacturing Execution Systems). 5. APS only works if a Production Control System ( MES ) solution is in place. MES system is important for having a real-time (or as up-to-date as possible) production overview, however, as in myth 2, scheduling is typically performed once or twice a day. In other words, if the key user schedules at 8:00 AM and 1:00 PM, what is really needed is that the scenario of what has been produced up to that point is up-to-date, not that everything is updated constantly. Therefore, entries at specific times of each shift, or entries by movement units (pallet, coil, etc.) are sufficient for good fine-tuning in APS. 6. APS is not useful for automotive assembly lines. An automotive assembly line does not really fit the traditional APS usage, but there are very positive advantages. There will be no complex synchronization between resources and operations caused by cross-flows in production that occur in other segments, but there are critical material synchronization issues. And the APS performs this synchronization and helps all processes adjacent to the assembly lines serve it in the best possible way, identifying when inputs are needed in each operation on the line, as well as when changes in the line are essential due to labor restrictions, which can cause stoppages on the line and are handled by the APS. Ultimately, due to the criticality of keeping the "factory drum" always efficient, the use of the APS focused on material synchronization and restriction control is very useful. [caption id="attachment_2064" align="aligncenter" width="610"]

Automotive line[/caption] 7. I don't need APS because we're implementing the Lean Manufacturing System here. Incredibly, concepts that should work together synergistically are often confused and seen as conflicting. Besides the Lean Manufacturing System being more than a methodology, it's a philosophy, and it mes collaborate significantly with APS and vice versa. The example of myth 6 itself demonstrates this, inserting APS into an environment that traditionally embraces Lean. At mes time, the adherence analyses we saw in myth 3 can be used as raw material for organizing a Kaizenblitz; Rapid Tool Changeover can constantly update the setup times used by APS, and so on. At mes same time, Lean alone cannot address the extremely dynamic bottlenecks that are increasingly common in production environments where the volume of SKUs and product diversification increases dramatically, meaning that, depending on the production mix, one sector may become overloaded and another idle. This dynamism demands a fast and intelligent response that only an expert system can provide, with heuristics and simulation power capable of adapting to each situation and moment in the factory. This is APS. Of course, these are just some of the myths (yes, there are many more!), and those who "believe" in them don't always defend them tooth and nail. But we note, whether implicitly or explicitly, that these are questions that haunt the minds of those who study or practice APS. It's worth reflecting on them to understand what not to expect and what not to fear from it. Have you heard any other myths?! Share with us here![noptin-form id=2822]