Advanced planning and scheduling

Advanced Planning & Scheduling (APS) refers to a manufacturing management process by which raw materials and production capacity are optimally allocated to meet demand. APS is especially well-suited to environments where simpler planning methods can not adequately address complex trade-off's between competing priorities.

Traditional planning and scheduling systems (such as Manufacturing Resource Planning) utilize a stepwise procedure to allocate material and production capacity. This approach is simple but cumbersome, and does not readily adapt to changes in demand, resource capacity or material availability. Materials and capacity are planned seperately, and many systems do not consider limited material availability or capacity constraints. Thus, this approach often results in plans that can not be executed.

Unlike previous systems, APS simultaneously plans and schedules production based on available materials and capacity. This usually results in a more realistic production plan.

APS has commonly been applied where one or more of the following conditions are present:

(1) capital-intensive production processes, where small changes in plant utilization significantly impact return on assets;

(2) "high mix" environments, where many different products are produced in each facility;

(3) highly complex products that require a large number of components or manufacturing tasks;

(4) many substitutes must be considered for facilities, production methods, equipment, raw materials, component parts or other resources.