Programming and Maintenance: The synergy between APS and PMS
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In theory, maintenance management and production scheduling seem to be very closely related and interconnected processes, after all, they manage many resources in common and share the mes mes availability and efficiency . However, the integration between them is poorly explored in the current practice of Brazilian industry. And I understand: both areas have very limited human resources and low future visibility, with a lot of uncertainty, which unfortunately means that management needs to be as simple as possible, focusing on what is most critical, urgent, and known . THE LIMITATION DUE TO LOW VISIBILITY Those who work with TPM (Total Productive Maintenance) already have a more solid basis for joint action with PPC because planned maintenance, whether preventive or predictive, is among its pillars. However, this planning is carried out and usually remains within the Maintenance area, and the information rarely reaches PPC in a formal way. The information comes in a phone call, a call , or a hallway chat, when departments interact and maintenance informs, " Look, PPC , machine X will have 4 hours of maintenance this coming Thursday at 2 PM. " This situation is aggravated for those who do not use APS software , because mes if the maintenance plan has a horizon longer than a week, PPC cannot accurately see more than a few days ahead in its own production schedule. Therefore, maintenance that is further ahead doesn't have a clear use. In short, this scenario of low visibility and scheduling accuracy limits synergy between departments. On the other hand, when we have production scheduling through APS , we can improve these processes. APS + TPM FOR PLANNING When starting to use Opcenter APS , a very interesting point to understand the finite production capacity is to bring the planned maintenance to the Gantt chart , so that it is already considered when scheduling, as in the image below. Therefore, an operation cannot be scheduled at this time on a resource that is already committed to maintenance.
Figure 1 - Gantt chart pre-programming with predictive maintenance in green and preventive maintenance in orange
Opcenter APS key user , but ideally they should be imported from another system, whether it's the maintenance module of your ERP, MES , or a specialized maintenance system. A further step towards synergy can arise when maintenance doesn't need to occur exactly on that specific day and time, but rather within a specific ideal period. This allows for precise allocation of maintenance after the PPC analyzes the production schedule itself . For example, predictive maintenance software can inform the APS (Analysis and Planning System) when maintenance will be needed and schedule it as shown in Figure 1. However, it could also create a maintenance request to be allocated to a specific period, with the exact day and time allocated by the PPC Planning and Control) in the APS, respecting the limits indicated by maintenance and identifying the best time for the maintenance to occur while minimizing production disruption. Because the synchronization between operations and the shifts of each resource is considered in the APS, it becomes possible to visualize situations where maintenance allocated to the morning or afternoon shift alters productive efficiency. This impact on efficiency can occur not only for the resource undergoing maintenance but also for subsequent operations that depend on the production of that resource. In other words, the dialogue between what maintenance needs and what the PPC requires through integrated scheduling maximizes efficiency gains. Of course, making this change is not simple; you need a well-structured process with assigned responsibilities and deadlines for these new activities, as well as adding more layers of integration between systems, since the APS (Automatic Processing System) will also return the scheduled maintenance dates. Even so, the efficiency gains and improved visibility favor the initiative.
Potential gaps for maintenance fitting
Figure 2 – Post-scheduling Gantt chart with potential gaps for maintenance allocation
BUT WHAT ABOUT CORRECTIVE MAINTENANCE? Corrective maintenance is perhaps the most critical to consider in an integration between APS and ERP or MES , given the urgent need for a quick response that PPC needs when an unforeseen event such as a machine breakdown occurs, and the impact the problem can generate. However, precisely because of the urgency and the scarcity of resources to standardize processes, many industries resolve these problems outside the system. First, this is a problem for maintenance itself because it doesn't record downtime history and negatively impacts indicators such as MTBF (Mean Time Between Failures ) and MTTR (Mean Time to Repair) . Second, if this information isn't entered into the system, the APS will depend on manual intervention from the programmer to insert the corrective maintenance and reschedule production accordingly. This manual process is feasible, but it loses agility . A good integration between the ERP or MES and the APS allows that, when a corrective maintenance event occurs, the APS can already block the resource during the time planned for diagnosis, the MTTD (Mean Time To Detect) , as well as update the maintenance duration according to the MTTR planned for that type of problem, once it has been diagnosed.
Figure 3 – Gantt chart with scheduling and corrective maintenance in red, with time automatically imported by MTTR
It's important to understand that very short stoppages are unlikely to impact production scheduling (or rescheduling), as they are very short-term events with little significant impact (the impact of these problems can be measured through schedule adherence ). However, longer stoppages or those affecting extremely critical resources may require an immediate on-demand response, and this agile integration can become a major differentiator. So, did you like the content?
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