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Vol 26 - No 02 - March 2000 Branch news type) News Sub) Ecommerce Sub) Planning and scheduling title) Advanced Planning & Scheduling Systems intro) The London Branch continued its evening meeting theme of 'Best of Breed Systems Augmenting ERP Systems' with a presentation on 19th January 2000 on Advanced Planning & Scheduling Systems by Keith Smurthwaite and Simon Flowers of PA Consulting. Keith outlined the pressures on the supply chain and how there was significant scope for improvement. Historically ERP had been the accepted solution but ERP was at best a transaction system and had constrained the supply chain around the functions of MRP. APS addresses these weaknesses and provides: Improved Demand Management A Finite Supply Chain Master Schedule Network Planning Optimised, Multi-site Production Planning Detailed Line Scheduling Transport Deployment and Optimisation A Global ATP E-business has raised the expectation of service to an unprecedented level and a highly reactive system such as APS is needed to meet the demand. What has made this possible are? A dramatic drop in telecoms charges Large, fast, cheap memory providing the ability to manipulate large models Advanced scheduling tools, such as iLog, to define and handle constraints. Keith outlined their experience with a number of companies where benefits such as stock reduction of 70%; capacity increase of up to 40%; lower costs and improved throughput were achieved. Payback was often in days or weeks of implementation. A lively discussion meeting followed including: ownership of the system; the scope of the APS systems - whether they were best on a vertical supply chain, or whether they could effectively be used across multiple supply chains; and on whether APS could sub-optimise the supply chain because it masked the need for re-engineering at various points. There was a capacity turn out for the meeting, and our thanks go to PA Consulting for their hospitality and particularly to Keith and Simon for a stimulating presentation. The meeting concluded with the London Branch AGM Page number: Page: 8 Word count: Words: approx. 300 Related Topics:
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