Product category:
Plant and shopfloor scheduling software
News Release from: ILOG | Subject: ILOG Plant PowerOps 3.0
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 11 February 2008
Production planning/scheduling software
updated
Latest version of an integrated planning and scheduling system increases production planners' ability to generate feasible and optimal plans and better control demand and manufacturing variability.
ILOG has introduced ILOG Plant PowerOps 3.0, the latest version of ILOG's integrated planning and scheduling software that increases production planners' ability to generate feasible and optimal plans and better control demand and manufacturing variability through industry-first features like a material rebalancing engine and improved rescheduling capabilities The ILOG Plant PowerOps (PPO) also features multidimensional product and time-aggregation capabilities that enable planners to better analyse and manage complex manufacturing environments that require the consideration of multiple product characteristics
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 12 Jan 2001 at 8.00am (UK)
Related stories
Virtual production line ups production 30%
ILOG optimisation software created a "virtual" production line for automaker Nissan and helped increase potential production by 30 percent at Europe's most efficient car plant.
Business rule engine personalises enterprise
As part of Dassault Systemes' intranet's applicative environment, the ILOG JRules engine is used to customise and filter information that 3,500 employees access in real-time mode.
ILOG PPO is now part of the ILOG LogicTools Supply Chain Applications Suite and is supported by a global team of manufacturing and supply chain professionals.
Today's competitive business dynamics, said ILOG to manufacturingtalk.com, force manufacturing companies to improve production efficiency and service levels, increase flexibility, accept smaller order sizes, and introduce new products at faster rates than ever before.
Most advanced planning and scheduling (APS) software packages on the market, whether part of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) or Supply Chain Management (SCM) systems or standalone, can only manage simple production processes.
Further reading
Two-thirds of manufacturers are out of synch
ILOG and APICS survey finds failure to implement supply chain management applications despite recognised benefits.
Tailored IT software provides competitive edge
Tailored software provides manufacturers with the opportunity to cost-effectively tailor their installed off-the-shelf software applications to address the unique requirements of their business.
Gantt chart graphic tools are for Microsoft.NET
C# based graphics tools incorporate Gantt chart capability into.NET solutions, allowing easy visualisation and editing of schedules and plans, reducing the creation of charts from scratch.
The limitations in their ability to address the key manufacturing constraints generate unrealistic schedules, high manufacturing costs and poor inventory coverage and service levels.
Leveraging investments in existing ERP, SCM and/or Manufacturing Execution systems (MES), ILOG PPO targets food and beverage, pharmaceuticals and chemicals and extends the value of existing IT investments by providing dramatic improvements in production efficiency and flexibility without an expensive system replacement project.
New features in ILOG PPO 3.0 developed in real-world manufacturing settings in the process industries areas includes a material rebalancing engine that helps planners align manufacturing with demand.
It accomplishes this by re-optimising the production quantities and batch sizes of a given schedule, which improves the synchronisation of plans between intermediate products and finished products and between finished products and stock coverage requirements.
The material rebalancing engine can also change the production quantities of finished products for a given (fixed) schedule of intermediate products.
Therefore planners are able to postpone decisions on the finished products (i.e packaging) to better cope with demand variability issues.
In addition to this new rebalancing capability, other key new features include the following.
* Rescheduling capability - enables dynamic re-pegging during manual rescheduling and more powerful tools to help planners change a schedule without violating constraints.
* Multidimensional product and time aggregation - enables planners to analyse the results of planning based on several dimensions defined by product families.
For example, it enables planners to analyse stock coverage on products aggregated by packaging format or flavor when most of the existing solutions on the market are restricted to only one dimension (i e, product belongs to one family).
* The ability to support different planning and scheduling business processes (i e, plan finish products before intermediates or vice versa) - which is also a unique feature on the market, claimed ILOG.
Bridging the gap between ERP and MES systems, ILOG PPO is the key element to improve companies' flexibility and real-time responsiveness.
ILOG PPO's ability to take into account plant floor constraints such as tanks, cleaning policies and sequence dependent changeovers is key to generate reliable plans.
Using the scenario management interface, supply chain executives and operations managers can simulate alternatives, compare them across key manufacturing metrics, and make the recommendations that lead to efficiently meeting business objectives.
* True decision-support system - with ILOG PPO, production planners and plant schedulers are empowered with a true decision-support system that enables them to modify the generated plan, validate the manually modified solution with sophisticated alerts and explanations.
Industries characterised by high product mix, shared equipments, physical batching constraints and high regulatory compliance constraints will gain the highest benefits from the sophisticated planning and scheduling capabilities of ILOG PPO.
Efficiency gains include reduction of waste and manufacturing costs, better management of variability, improved synchronisation between supply chain plans and manufacturing execution, as well as improved throughputs and reduction of planning and scheduling cycle time.
* About ILOG supply chain applications - ILOG Supply Chain Applications capitalize on ILOG's 20 years of leadership in optimisation and LogicTools' supply chain customers, expertise and thought leadership.
Over 250 companies use the LogicTools suite of supply chain applications for network design, production sourcing, inventory optimization, transportation planning as well as production planning and scheduling.
With the acquisition of LogicTools, the company founded in 1995 by David Simchi-Levi, professor of engineering systems at MIT, ILOG today provides solutions that complement ERP systems and enable companies to make better decisions faster by optimizing their logistics networks and transportation strategy, setting safety stock levels for their sales and operations planning and improving their plant operations through sophisticated production planning and detailed scheduling.
* About ILOG - ILOG delivers software and services that empower customers to make better decisions faster and manage change and complexity.
Over 3,000 corporations and more than 465 leading software vendors rely on ILOG's market-leading business rule management system (BRMS), supply chain and planning and scheduling applications, and optimisation and visualisation software components, to achieve dramatic returns on investment, create market-defining products and services, and sharpen their competitive edge.
ILOG was founded in 1987 and employs more than 850 people worldwide.
• ILOG: contact details and other news
• Email this article to a colleague
• Register for the free Manufacturingtalk email newsletter
• Manufacturingtalk Home Page
Search the Pro-Talk network of sites
