GIB GXM FOX – our contribution to the optimization of the production planning
With GIB GXM FOX we provide you with the answer to the increasing complexity of your industrial value creation, the increasing competitive pressure and the necessity to sustainably improve production processes to remain competitive.
In doing so, we have taken care to ensure that the complexity of holistic planning is handled by the system, thus significantly reducing the workload of the responsible planners.
- Consideration of all workplaces in the plant
- Consideration of relevant restrictions
- Low manual effort
Optimized production sequence planning in SAP
Every production planner knows the situation: If one machine is perfectly planned, there is guaranteed to be a hitch in the upstream or downstream process.
Due to countless dependencies and variables, one by one work center planning remains an often unsolvable task.
In the SAP standard, it was previously hardly possible to carry out valid multi-work center planning.
The "pegging" required for this was previously only offered by SAP APO.
What is Pegging?
Pegging works like a relationship manager.
For each order it is determined which materials and/or parts are needed and at which work center they have to be provided. Also upstream and downstream production processes as well as wait and buffer times have to be observed.
In addition, pegging also considers the order dependencies among each other.
In this way, the production quantity of upstream production processes can be adjusted in such a way that several downstream processes of different orders can be served from one operation.
This dependency knowledge makes it possible to optimize the entire production process across all customer orders.
Determining the production sequence
So how does knowledge of the relationships, restrictions and availabilities become an optimal detailed production plan?
This works in the so-called "optimizer".
Behind this is a complex algorithm that checks all dependencies and determines a "feasible" production sequence. The software continuously calculates other possible production plans, compares the quality and finally provides the best possible plan.
Holistic and comprehensive production sequence planning still represents an essential support function for every manufacturing company. Above all, it aims at the continuous and sustainable optimization of production and thus avoids the waste of precious resources.
Further goals & advantages resulting from efficient planning:
- Ensuring adherence to delivery dates
- Continuous utilization of existing production capacities
- Shorter lead times
- Reduction of inventories
- Permanent reduction of production costs
- Increase in delivery readiness
- Reduction of CO² emissions
Holistic planning for the entire plant. Consideration of all workplaces and restrictions during planning.
2in1: Production planning tool and optimizer
GIB GXM Factory Optimization Excellence, FOX for short, consists of two essential elements: the comprehensive production planning tool with the new "pegging" core and the optimizer.
The optimization process takes place outside the SAP system and can be operated both in the cloud and on-premise.
In the optimizer itself, the dependencies extracted from the SAP system, including all determined restrictions, creates an optimized sequence with the help of an intelligent algorithm.
The optimized plan is then imported into the SAP system, and all affected orders are rescheduled according to their new sequence.
With the slide rule?
Do I have trust the optimal solution or can I do the calculation? Quite clear: YES AND NO.
If you can recalculate the underlying optimization algorithm for even one production plan, we look forward to receiving your application.
Of course, this is impossible with complex algorithms. But: You can check the quality of the result!
On the one hand, you will see that the calculated plan is ALWAYS feasible – and thus leads you to success in every case. On the other hand, evaluation criteria are anchored in the system, which checks the quality of every calculated, feasible plan.
Whether you will achieve a "perfect" result? Unclear. But you are guaranteed to get a better result than you could ever generate with your bottleneck planning or via other methods.
How long does the result take?
We have integrated a fixed calculation time. The best plan at time x is offered to you. Do you want to adjust a restriction and thus influence it yourself?
No problem! The system can be triggered again at any time.
YOU decide whether to adopt the plan into real production.
Too many regulations make you immature
This applies to education as well as to the optimizer! The more restrictions you enter, the less leeway you leave to the algorithm.
It's best to limit yourself to the real show stoppers and rather evaluate afterwards if it really would have been better to add the speed limit, the parking ban and the ruts as well.
With the use of GIB FOX, become better, more experienced and more enthusiastic.
Do you want to know exactly?
Then we'll show you here where the time wasters are. It's in your hands:
Pegging: The determination of all relationships behaves nearly linearly. The more orders you include in your consideration, the more relationships to be found and extracted.
Optimizing: Restrictions, on the other hand, have an exponential effect on the time factor. The more regulations to check and the more prohibitions you impose, the more difficult it becomes to calculate a better plan. The remarkable thing: Above a certain number of restrictions, the calculated production plan improves only marginally; instead, the calculation time increases disproportionately. Less is often more!
Integration in SAP: Data transfer into the SAP system also behaves largely linear and has only a minor effect on the total time.
The advantages of the new GIB GXM FOX solution at a glance
- Integrated in SAP
- Minimal manual effort
- Solve different optimization targets together
- Optimal scheduling of orders
- Simulation and manual change of scheduling
- All workstations in the plant are planned
- Dynamic pegging of orders
- Priorization of orders
- Recalculation possible at any time in acceptable time frame
Process sequence
The process of determining the optimum production sequence already begins with the selection of the right production operations. Here, the time period and planning scope must be chosen wisely.
In the pegging process, orders and capacities are correlated. Among other things, idle and cooling times, buffer and transition times are taken into account.
In addition, information on blocks, bundles and operation scheduling also flows into the optimizer.
As soon as all restrictions, capacities, order data and relationships are available, the data is provided to the optimizer.
The actual optimization then takes place outside the SAP system – either on-premise or in the cloud.
Once the optimization process is completed, the calculated data is checked and only imported into the SAP system if no manual changes have been made in the meantime.
