A reappraisal on advanced planning and scheduling systems
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/02635570710822822 |
| Pages | 1212-1226 |
| Published date | 02 October 2007 |
| Date | 02 October 2007 |
| Author | Chao‐Hsien Lin,Sheue‐Ling Hwang,Eric Min‐Yang Wang |
| Subject Matter | Economics,Information & knowledge management,Management science & operations |
A reappraisal on advanced
planning and scheduling systems
Chao-Hsien Lin, Sheue-Ling Hwang and Eric Min-Yang Wang
National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan
Abstract
Purpose – This paper sets out to present a reappraisal on advanced planning and scheduling (APS)
systems in industrial settings and propose an effective approach for APS implementation.
Design/methodology/approach – A case study approach is adopted, and a research framework
comprising human-, technological-, and organizational-dimensions is developed to analyze the
evidence database which includes business flows, system design documents, archival records,
post-system assessment, participant-observation and semi-structured interviews.
Findings – Thefindings indicate thatreal-world productionplanning problems are ill-defined,complex
and dynamic. A post-implementation evaluation reveals major pitfalls in the technology-dominant
approach, whose negative ramifications are usually overlooked. Besides, these APS implementation
pitfalls are foundto be attributable to the real-world context,human factors and organizational aspects.
Research limitations/implications – Despite advances in information technology (IT) and
computer modeling techniques, humans still play critical roles in the production-planning processes –
especially in a complex and dynamic manufacturing environment where incomplete, ambiguous,
inconsistent and untimely data make automatic planning unrealistic. A rational human-computer
collaboration scheme under an effective organizational structure would be in a better position to take
advantage of the IT.
Originality/value – This paper presents a humans-technology-organization-framework of real
planning systems, which is employed to analyze a case of APS implementation. Practical insights are
extracted as a result of this field research, and a realist approach is proposed to cope with the problems
and pitfalls of APS implementation in industrial settings.
Keywords Supply chain management, Semiconductors,Production planning, Productionscheduling,
Human resource accounting
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Supply chain management (SCM) crystallizes concepts about integrated business
planning. Today, integrated planning is finally possible due to advances in information
technology (IT) (Shapiro, 2001). Usually, SCM requires an advanced planning and
scheduling (APS) system, which is defined in APICS Dictionary as:
...any computer program that uses advanced mathematical algorithms or logic to perform
optimization or simulation on finite capacity scheduling ...These techniques simultaneously
consider a range of constraints and business rules to provide real-time planning and
scheduling, decision support, available-to-promise, and capable-to-promise capabilities
(Cox and Blackstone, 2002).
For decades, the academic field has treated the production planning and scheduling
problems as deterministic and static, and formulated various mathematical models to
solve them. Despite the vast volume of theories in the academic field, some authors
have cautioned the insufficiency of planning and scheduling theories and noted that
their application in the industry was rare (Graves, 1981; McKay and Wiers, 1999;
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
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IMDS
107,8
1212
Industrial Management & Data
Systems
Vol. 107 No. 8, 2007
pp. 1212-1226
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
0263-5577
DOI 10.1108/02635570710822822
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