Today, many companies have connected their MES and WMS to the ERP system. More and more companies put IoT applications into operation or set up M2M communication. However, in all digitalization and networking, a highly-detailed production planning system constitutes a factory’s brain, whereby all company organs are aligned towards fulfilling their activities just-in-time. In the case of a missing or inadequate production planning method, most-expensive types of waste emerge. Still, the topic of production planning is hardly mentioned in journals that discuss Industry 4.0.

An Advanced Planning and Scheduling software is to be viewed as the missing link between ERP and MES. Before manufacturing companies conceptualize the ideal of Industry 4.0, it is imperative for top-management to analyze and question their current production planning method and system. Non-synchronous processes, long production lead times and high inventories are, to a great extent, a result of inadequate production planning.

A good production planning tool issues manufacturing orders to individual resources with specifications for optimal production order sequence. A continuously coordinated sequence planning method is, in turn, the prerequisite for process synchronization. Precision and correct timing of the sequence plan are critical to the just-in-time level. After attaining that, one start dreaming of Industry 4.0.

Asprova is one of the world’s leading providers of APS systems. Their planning software was developed during the mid-90’s in cooperation with Japan’s top lean-manufacturers and since has been continuously developed to stay up-to-date with ever-increasing requirements, and to represent state-of-the-art technology in its domain. Many companies that employ Asprova today produce on a level that complies with Industry 4.0.

Asprova offers you

Fully automatic planning system
100 % mapping of product specifications, process rules and -restrictions
Realistic planning results
Near real time order status: plan vs. production status
High level of process synchronization through wholistic sequence scheduling
Simulation of short-/middle-/long-term plans with varying scenarios
Super-high calculation speed
Versatile visualization features of planning results
Enables front-loading management through preemptive recognition of bottlenecks/problems, so that timely preventive measures can be simulated and on the basis of which decision can be made.