APS and the steps for industry 4.0

Having emerged a few years ago through public partnerships between the German government and leading innovation companies in the country, the theme of industry 4.0 is emerging in the industrial sector. The concept covers a series of technologies, now widespread in other segments of the economy, interconnected to generate manufacturing solutions. These technologies cover automation, internet of things, robots, simulation, augmented reality, big data, additive manufacturing (3D printing, for example), cloud and artificial intelligence. All inserted in the context of industry needs. We have, with the help of these tools, for digital manufacturing, through digitization. That is, not only our work objects are digital, but also the processes that involve the entire production chain should be digitized. And this need is evident that the processes and products of companies are increasingly complex. In this sense, Siemens has invested for many years strongly in PLM (Product Lifecycle Management), so -called product life cycle management, providing solutions to giving more robustness and agility in product development and production planning processes (this planning in the conception of the productive system, not in the case of APS systems). Development costs, increase the quality of your products, better manage knowledge about your portfolio and also reduce your Time-to-Market dramatically. Many companies are today replacing entire prototyping factories with much more effective scanned solutions.

But still, it's not enough. It is no use properly developing products and processes if they cannot be effective at the right time expected by the market and the necessary efficiency, as they are absorbed by a mass production system. Understanding this need, Siemens acquired in 2013 the PREACTOR APS. But what is PHS? A few decades ago Advanced Planning and Scheduling (APS) systems have emerged to assist in the planning and programming of production with a finite capacity view, considering the restrictions of production resources, as well as those related to the availability of production materials and tools, physical storage space, among other possible criteria. In addition to restrictions, each industry has a series of rules to be able to program its production orders, such as times boundaries, transfers, peristent, breaks and lot controls, among other aspects. Preactor is one of the pioneers of this current and, created in 1993 in England, has become what it is to this day: the world leader in APS solutions. The implementation of APS software brings stability to PPCP processes and confidence on the promise of delivery time, inventory reduction and lead teams, and enables optimizations in manufacturing efficiency through intelligent algorithms that can decrease, for example, for example, for example, Setup. Gains are really expressive and implementation is viable in numerous industry segments. Thus, after developing the product quickly and correctly in PLM, you can validate by A + B that it may or may not be produced in the required time requested by the market. If you can't, you can simulate different scenarios to better meet these needs and have visibility about the result in advance. This is an APS! Vision of the future yet, although we live the present, we need to think about the future. Therefore, in addition to having a solution with cutting -edge technology in an APS integrated with the most complete PLM portfolio, Neo thinks ahead and meets Industry 4.0 technologies. We glimpse a future in which this production program is autonomous, provided with artificial intelligence and advanced optimization algorithms. Thus, PPCP will be able to dedicate itself to activities with as much added value as possible, enabling further analysis of its scenarios, becoming more present in the productive environment itself and being triggered only in situations that need human intervention. Today, the Neo is proud to have customers with the same innovative mind and willing to become Early Adopters in this shared view and the first steps of this innovation are being taken. By joining the best tools and the best people, we will make the future present as early as possible! [NAPTIN-Form ID = 2822]