What type of constraints can APS handle?

A real production system is subject to numerous constraints that directly affect production planning and scheduling. In the context of Advanced Planning and Scheduling ( APS) systems —especially those focused on detailed sequencing—accounting for these constraints is essential to generating feasible and efficient plans.

Opcenter APS , Siemens’ advanced scheduling software, enables the creation of models capable of handling a wide range of constraints, such as:

• Material Availability Constraints

• Routing constraints and valid resource assignments

• Secondary constraints

• Advanced resource scheduling constraints

• Constraints for dependencies between parent and child operations

• Movement, waiting, and transportation constraints

Here’s a closer look at the main categories:

Material Availability Constraints

Production planning needs to reflect the real availability of materials. Without clear visibility into inventory, planned orders are at serious risk of shortages, which can disrupt schedules and impact overall efficiency.

Opcenter APS considers multiple material sources to ensure accurate and feasible production planning:

• Available inventory in the current period;

• Purchase orders - already linked to suppliers;

• Purchase requests - not yet linked (internal documents).

Furthermore, you can also:

• Set priority storage locations;

• Link inventory to specific work centers;

• Limit usage according to material quality, supplier, or lot.

Practical example:
In the textile industry, it's common to require that all production orders for the same mes use the mes yarn batch to ensure uniformity in the tone of the pieces. Mes if the SKU and color are the same, small variations in dyeing can compromise the quality of the final product.

Opcenter APS allows different levels of risk in planning:

• More conservative: sequencing only with materials in stock.

• Moderate: Include purchase orders with safety margins.

• Simulated: Ignore absences to analyze the full productive potential of the plant.

This flexibility supports simulations, internal benchmarking and strategic decisions.

Routing constraints and valid resource assignments

The production process describes the steps a material goes through until it becomes a finished or semi-finished product. Ideally, each Part Number (SKU) has its process registered in the ERP, which is the mes (System of Record).

At Opcenter APS:

• Roadmaps may be imported from the ERP or, in specific cases, registered directly.

• Work centers are attributed according to the script, restricting where each operation can occur.

Complementarily, the APS allows:

• Restrict work centers based on product attributes (color, material type, etc.);

• Customize scripts agile for feasibility simulations and analysis, without affecting the ERP.

This capacity is essential for industries that need to simulate production and programming scenarios quickly, adapting itineraries and resource allocation dynamically.

Secondary constraints

Real production systems are subject to numerous other restrictions beyond the capacity of so -called primary resources (machines, work centers, production lines). Among these additional restrictions, we can mention:

• Specific labor;

• Available electricity;

• Tools, molds, arrays;

• Shared auxiliary resources.

These are called secondary restrictions on Opcenter APS. That is, any other element that impacts the capacity of the productive system. Thus, the models created from APS, in projects implemented by Neo Digital Industries, include the possibility of configuring these restrictions, giving the high accuracy and realism.

Practical Example:
Imagine a hypothetical F factory, with 3 machines available 5 days a week, 8 hours a day, totaling 120 hours per week of capacity.

Product A demand is 100 hours and can be processed on any machine. However, the product A requires the use of the X matrix - and the factory has only 2 X matrices, which restricts the capacity available to 80 hours.

In other words, mesif there is sufficient nominal machine capacity, the head office bottleneck prevents full demand from being met.

With Opcenter APS, it is possible to model these restrictions and generate plans and sequences actually adherent to the factory reality.

Other Advanced Restrictions

Opcenter APS sequencing module also treats more complex restrictions, such as:

• Production orders synchronism (dependent operations);

• Controlled parallelism between work centers;

• Movements between productive areas , considering:

• Transportation times,

• Compulsory waiting times,

• Logistic capacity restrictions.

• Minimum or maximum lot restrictions;

• Calendar restrictions and custom shifts.

These features allow the APS factory model to accurately reflect the active productive environment, supporting quick, intelligent and feasible decisions.

Conclusion

Opcenter APS not only considers basic restrictions of materials and itineraries, but also integrates advanced features that allow:

• Model secondary and auxiliary restrictions,

• Simulate different levels of risk,

• Optimize sequencing based on the specific reality of each operation.

Want to understand how these restrictions can be modeled to your business?
Talk to our Neo Digital Industries experts: https://www.neodigitalindustries.com/contato