Gemini ha detto Why Integrate MES and APS in Production Planning
TECAM, a company specialized in urban hygiene equipment, needed to improve the management of deadlines, timing, and resource utilization across all production and after-sales phases, aligning with Industry 4.0 paradigms. To achieve this objective, the company selected Industrial Cloud as its technological partner, integrating two key solutions:
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Agile Factory MES for production, for operational control and real-time data acquisition;
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APS Software, for advanced production planning and optimized resource management.
Thanks to this implementation, TECAM is now able to:
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Accurately plan delivery times for its customers and manage production by establishing correct priorities through an advanced production scheduler.
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Maintain real-time visibility through production progress monitoring, obtaining reliable cost data to support operational decisions.
The integration between MES and APS has addressed specific criticalities, transforming a complex process into a more proactive, efficient, and stable management system.
The Solution Adopted by TECAM: Agile Factory MES and APS
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Like many manufacturing entities, TECAM faced the need to digitalize workflows to optimize time, capacity, and processes. The main criticalities included:
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Difficulty in defining priorities among production orders and interventions distributed across multiple resources and departments;
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Manual planning based on Excel spreadsheets and static calendars, which was inadequate for modern advanced production planning;
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Challenges in managing emergencies or evaluating alternative production scenarios.
Finite Capacity Scheduling and What-if Simulations
To meet these requirements, TECAM implemented two integrated digital solutions:
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Agile Factory MES: This production management software supports the monitoring and management of departments. Every processing phase is tracked in real time, ensuring precise production progress control. This allows for rapid reactions to unforeseen events and keeps execution times, operator activities, and costs under constant control.
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APS Software: The system acts as a production scheduler, performing finite capacity scheduling. It accounts for the actual availability of machines, operators, and the specific skills associated with each activity. The system calculates workloads and distributes operations over time to avoid overlaps or overloads, even in TECAM’s context, where operations within the same work order do not follow a strictly constrained sequence but can progress in parallel.
Through the “what-if” simulation function, characteristic of top-tier APS software, the user can evaluate different production scenarios—such as changes in priority, resource unavailability, or last-minute emergencies—and measure their impact on delivery times and plant saturation before confirming the finite capacity schedule on the shop floor.
Gemini ha detto Achieved Results: Lead Time Reduction and Resource Optimization
The TECAM project demonstrates how the integration between MES and APS enables more flexible, responsive production that is fully compliant with Industry 4.0 criteria. Through this digital transformation, the company has been able to:
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Precisely assign priorities and deadlines to work orders;
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Maximize the utilization of machinery, resources, and personnel;
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Reduce non-productive time and overall lead times;
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Analyze various planning scenarios and intervene rapidly in response to variations.
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