Development of a model to evaluate the implementation of advanced planning and scheduling systems in manufacturing organizations

Abstract

Manufacturing organizations are adopting digital solutions to its manufacturing processes with the intention to remain competitive within the industry. The adaptation of such digital solutions impacts various functions within a manufacturing organization and if an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system is taken as an example, such a system impacts all the functions of the organization where it has been configured to use. However, this study is based on Advanced Planning and Scheduling (APS) systems and its implementation. APS systems are made to digitalize the production planning and scheduling function of manufacturing organizations. Advanced Planning and Scheduling (APS) systems are available as a module within some Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems as well as APS systems being available as separate and independent systems. Therefore, this study is conducted on Advanced Planning and Scheduling (APS) systems which are independent from that of an inbuilt ERP module. Furthermore, this study is focused on the implementation aspect of Advanced Planning and Scheduling systems within manufacturing organizations. Digital and technological transformations can be a daunting task for manufacturers. Therefore, when implementing such systems as an Advanced Planning and Scheduling system, it is a standard practice for manufacturing organizations to opt to execute the implementation through a specialized consultation body. Through the literature survey conducted, it is highlighted that a set of critical success factors exist in general when implementing manufacturing operations management systems within manufacturing organizations. Therefore, a further concentrated definition which is subjected to this study is to conduct an in-depth literature review in order to formulate critical success factors associated with the implementation of Advanced Planning and Scheduling (APS) systems within manufacturing organizations. Moreover, through the conduct of this study, the formulated critical success factors and its key performance indicators for the implementation of APS systems will be weighted and prioritized. Hence, the scope of this study is limited to the formulation of critical success factors and its key performance indicators associated with the implementation of Advanced Planning and Scheduling (APS) systems within manufacturing organizations and to formulate the critical success factors and key performance indicators for the implementation of APS systems into an assessment model to evaluate APS implementation projects under each stage of implementation in manufacturing organizations.