Top 3 Production Planning Challenges & How to Overcome Them in the Digital Era with Siemens Opcenter APS

February 3, 2025

🌍 The Fast-Changing Business World & The Need for Smart Production Planning

In today’s rapidly evolving business landscape, companies face numerous challenges in production planning, from managing orders to efficiently utilizing resources. These issues can significantly impact costs, delivery times, and customer satisfaction.

Let’s explore the Top 3 production planning challenges and how Siemens Opcenter APS (Advanced Planning and Scheduling) provides a digital-era solution to systematically address them. This software enhances planning accuracy and scheduling efficiency, ensuring a seamless production workflow. Let’s see how APS can help resolve these challenges!

⚠ Challenge #1: Frequent Changes in Production Plans

Customer demands always take top priority, but adjusting production plans is time-consuming, sometimes taking days. Checking everything from raw materials to machine schedules is a tedious process. Last-minute order changes or urgent requests can cause delays, increased costs, and missed deadlines.

✅ The Digital-Era Solution:

Siemens Opcenter APS enables real-time production planning by considering factors such as machine workloads, material availability, and workforce capacity. This allows immediate rescheduling recommendations 🔄, helping you choose the best plan while minimizing disruptions and responding quickly to order changes.

⚠ Challenge #2: Inefficient Resource Utilization

Production fluctuates between High and Low Seasons. When not managed effectively, this results in idle machines (Idle Time) or overutilized workforce 🚨, leading to unnecessary production costs.

✅ The Digital-Era Solution:

Siemens Opcenter APS analyzes constraints and optimally allocates resources (machines, labor, raw materials) 💯 to maximize efficiency, reduce idle time, and enhance overall team productivity.

⚠ Challenge #3: Imbalanced Inventory Management

Overstocking raw materials leads to high costs, while understocking results in unfulfilled orders and missed customer demands.

✅ The Digital-Era Solution:

Siemens Opcenter APS optimizes inventory planning by analyzing order data and future demand trends 🔍, reducing stockout risks with features like Material Shortage & Material Usage Reports.

Real-World Success Story

🏭 A Chocolate Factory in Spain 🍫 producing for over 60 countries needed to enhance internal communication and gain real-time visibility into production activities 🕒.

By implementing Siemens Opcenter APS integrated with ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning), the company achieved:

✔️ Able to view data throughout the entire Supply Chain process, ensuring sufficient information for making effective and informed decisions.
✔️ Able to reduce production time by up to 60% per order, increasing operational efficiency from 97.8% to 98.5% 📈
✔️ Enhances the accuracy of production planning even further 🎯

🇹🇭 In Thailand, many food manufacturers face similar challenges in interdepartmental communication, production planning, and real-time tracking.

🔹 Dentsu Soken has successfully implemented Siemens Opcenter APS in food manufacturing plants, integrating production data with ERP systems to enhance planning, reduce lead time, and boost operational efficiency.

🚀 Transform Your Business with Siemens Opcenter APS!

If your business faces these challenges, Siemens Opcenter APS is the key to improving efficiency and flexibility in your production processes.