Collaborative Demand and Supply Planning Networks - Enterprise Information Systems Design, Implementation and Management: Organizational Applications - page 499

MAnufActuring pLAnning
And controL

decision support tools across the entire network
(Özbayrak, 2006).

The essential task of manufacturing planning and
control is to efficiently manage the flow of materi-
als, the utilisation of people and equipment and
to respond to customer requirements by utilising
the capacity of suppliers and internal resources to
meet customer demand (Vollmann et al., 2005).
Planning across non-hierarchical networks is a
complicated and complex task due to conflicting
objectives and continuously changing demand. In
such a case, the planning and scheduling issues will
have to face the challenge of coordinating systems
that do not fully share all relevant information
between companies (Alvarez, 2007).
Distributed planning in non-hierarchical
networks has to be performed in a setting where
relevant information from several IT systems are
integrated and up to date, and can be accessed
in real time from anywhere in the network. This
information visibility depends on the exchange of
critical data required for the efficient management
and control of the flow of products, services and re-
lated information between members in the network
(Handsfield and Nichols, 2002). Each node should
ideally be able to see the real time situation in the
network, downstream as well as upstream, from
boardroom to shop floor, enabled by automatic
data acquisition . Although information visibility
and system integration are regarded as keys for
enabling collaboration, very few networks have
successfully achieved this (Quinn, 2003).
The dominating techniques and systems for
planning and control (e.g. Enterprise Resource
Planning - ERP, Manufacturing Execution Sys-
tems - MES) do not support the need for a network
perspective. They have a single-company focus
and mainly support centralized production and
planning and control (Alvarez, 2007). This makes
network planning difficult and inefficient. This
amplifies the need for supply chains to rely on
flexible, adaptable and responsive planning and

AdVAnced pLAnning
And scheduLing

Advanced Planning and Scheduling (APS) sys-
tems introduced the benefits of constraint-based
planning and optimization to the business world
and enabled companies to optimize plans accord-
ing to financial and other strategic objectives. APS
seeks to find feasible, near optimal plans unlike
traditional Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
systems (Stadtler & Kilger, 2005). APS takes into
account constraints at enterprise level as well
as at plant level. Materials and capacity issues
are considered simultaneously, and manufactur-
ing, distribution, and transportation issues are
integrated. Many ERP and APS systems make it
possible to include suppliers and customers in the
planning procedure and thereby optimize a whole
supply chain on a real-time basis (Wortmann, 1998;
Vollmann et al., 2004; Kennerly & Neely, 2001).
Therefore, APS does not substitute but supple-
ment existing ERP systems. The ERP system
handles the basic activities and transactions such
as customer orders and accounting whereas the
APS system focus on the operational activities
related to decision-making, planning, scheduling
and control of a supply chain and related man-
agement activities, which are not explicitly well
covered in ERP systems. APS has the capability
to simulate different scenarios for decision sup-
port, to plan and to schedule on-line as well as
off-line. Planning and scheduling is by nature a
proactive process, which can initiate an event in
another area of the business or at partners based
on the workflow control.
APS is the most comprehensive system for
supply chain planning and control today. Although
APS aims at automating and computerizing the
planning processes by use of simulation and
optimization, the decision-making is still made