APS and the steps for industry 4.0

Having emerged a few years ago through public-private partnerships between the German government and company in the country, the topic of Industry 4.0 is emerging in the industrial sector. The concept encompasses a series of technologies, now widespread in other segments of the economy, interconnected to generate solutions for manufacturing. These technologies include automation, the Internet of Things, robots, simulation, augmented reality, big data, additive manufacturing (3D printing, for example), cloud computing, and artificial intelligence. All of this is embedded in the context of industry needs. With the help of these tools, we are moving towards digital manufacturing through digitization. In other words, not only are our work objects digital, but also the processes involving the entire production chain must be digitized. And this need is evident given that the processes and products of company are becoming increasingly complex. In this sense, SIEMENS has invested heavily in PLM (Product Lifecycle Management) for many years, providing solutions to enhance the robustness and agility of product development and production planning processes (this planning within the scope of the production system design, and not the execution planning, as in the case of APS systems). With Siemens' PLM solutions, companies reduce company costs, increase the quality of their products, better manage knowledge about their portfolio, and drastically reduce their time-to-market . Many company are now replacing entire prototyping factories with much more efficient digitized solutions.

However, this is still not enough. Properly developing products and processes is pointless if they cannot be implemented within the timeframe expected by the market and with the necessary efficiency, as they are absorbed by a mass production system. Understanding this need, SIEMENS acquired PREACTOR APS in 2013. mes WHAT IS APS? For decades, APS (Advanced Planning and Scheduling) systems have emerged to assist in Production Planning and Scheduling with a finite capacity perspective, considering the constraints of productive resources, as well as those related to the availability of production materials and tooling, physical storage space, and other possible criteria. In addition to constraints, each industry has a series of rules for scheduling its production orders, such as time limits between operations, transfers, perishability, breakages, and batch controls, among other aspects. PREACTOR is one of the pioneers of this trend and, created in 1993 in England, has become what it is today: a world leader in APS solutions. Implementing APS software brings stability to PPC and confidence in mes , reduces inventory and lead times mes and enables optimizations in manufacturing efficiency through intelligent algorithms that can reduce, for example, setup times. The gains are truly significant, and implementation is viable in numerous industry segments. Thus, after developing the product quickly and correctly in PLM, you can validate beyond a shadow of a doubt whether it can (or cannot) be produced within the time required by the market. If it cannot, you can simulate different scenarios to better meet these needs and have visibility into the result beforehand. That's APS! VISION FOR THE FUTURE Even so, despite living in the present, we need to think about the future. Therefore, in addition to possessing a cutting-edge technology solution in an 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, equipped with artificial intelligence and advanced optimization algorithms. In this way, PPC can dedicate itself to activities with the highest possible added value, enabling more in-depth analyses of its scenarios, becoming more present in the production environment itself and being activated only in situations that require human intervention. Today, NEO is proud to have clients with the same mes 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 will make the future a reality as soon as possible!