Increasing daily production by 57 percent and reducing setup times by 30 percent while decreasing factory shutdowns

Forging win-win partnerships to simplify industrial digitalization

APS3 Technology Service’s (APS3’s) purpose is to empower businesses by leading and simplifying their digital transformation journey. The company is dedicated to driving growth, fostering win-win partnerships and promoting sustainable innovation.

Helping clients achieve their goals and generate tangible value is APS3’s mission. Guided by its core values of excellence, flexibility and commitment, the company’s dedicated team delivers solutions that result in exceptionally high customer satisfaction.

“An important point in choosing a partner is the trust we have in the APS3 team,” says Marcelo Fernandes, PPC specialist at Panasonic.

To ensure the best outcomes for their clients, APS3 has strategically partnered with the world’s leading industrial software company, Siemens Digital Industries Software. APS3 leverages Opcenter™ Advanced Planning and Scheduling (APS) software, Opcenter X software and Teamcenter® software, which are part of the Siemens Xcelerator business platform of software, hardware and services.

Overcoming outdated scheduling processes

Many industries that APS3’s clients work within face similar challenges rooted in outdated planning and scheduling methods. They often rely on disconnected spreadsheets and legacy systems, leading to a critical lack of real-time visibility. This results in the inability to accurately predict delivery dates, absorb production mix variations and a constant struggle to identify and resolve bottlenecks. These challenges create friction between departments (sales, production and the supply chain), hindering innovation and the agility necessary to respond to market demands effectively.

Connecting product development to manufacturing operations

A truly digital enterprise requires a seamless digital thread from product design to execution on the shop floor; however, this connection is often a critical weakness. To overcome this, APS3 specializes in bridging this gap due to its expertise in mastering the crucial integration between Teamcenter, which defines what to build and how, and the Opcenter suite, which manages when and where to build it. The company’s proficiency ensures authoritative engineering data, such as bill-of-materials (BOMs) and process routings, flawlessly translates into optimized, real-world production schedules. This enables APS3’s clients to achieve unparalleled agility and accuracy in their manufacturing operations.

Replacing legacy systems and streamlining business operations

For APS3, the key to digital transformation is strategically implementing Opcenter APS. Since using Opcenter APS connects with enterprise resource planning (ERP) or legacy systems, APS3 can help clients break down information silos. Additionally, the company enables customers to shift from batch processing to real-time analytics using the Opcenter graphical interface and dozens of advanced, customizable scheduling rules.

By leveraging APS3’s team of certified Smart Experts, with experience from over 150 successful projects, ensures the solution is not only installed, but customized to each client’s unique needs and processes. Combining Opcenter with expertise guarantees streamlined operations and a 100 percent customer satisfaction rating.

“Whenever we had a call, APS3 always answered us quickly,” says Hélio Golin Junior, industrial director at Tecnocurva. “And when we had any doubts, they answered objectively and clearly. We are very satisfied with the APS3 team that represented Siemens with implementing our software.”

Benefiting from Siemens solutions

After implementing Siemens solutions, APS3’s clients were able to achieve the benefits of a closed-loop environment. For example, with a seamless flow of data from product engineering in Teamcenter into Opcenter APS, clients can optimize their production sequences, reducing setup times by 30 percent and decreasing factory shutdowns by 60 percent by eliminating resource conflicts and material shortages. Additionally, by executing and monitoring an optimized schedule in real time using Opcenter X, clients can achieve granular shop floor visibility, improving operational efficiency by 77 percent and reducing information technology (IT) infrastructure costs by up to 50 percent.

Additionally, by using Opcenter APS, some of APS3’s customers also saw an increase in daily production of 57 percent and a decrease in overtime production of 80 percent. One customer was also able to transform its processes by cutting scheduling time by 93 percent, material requirements planning (MRP) runs by 97 percent and spreadsheets by 100 percent. By leveraging Siemens solutions, namely Opcenter APS, other clients were able to optimize their inventory by reducing work-in-process (WIP) by 75 percent and finished products stock by 30 percent, boosting turnover by 3.2 times.

Further, APS3 delivered performance gains by up to 270 percent for stock keeping unit (SKU) accuracy, reduced backorders by 92 percent and boosted on-time in-full (OTIF)
by 60 percent. Finally, one customer secured their supply chain by reducing input shortages by 90 percent and eliminating last-minute freight costs.

“Using Opcenter APS brought agility to Tecnocurva that we didn’t have before,” says Golin. “With the ERP, we used to take two to three days to load the factory. Today it takes me two to four hours at most.”

Thanks to the digital thread, APS3 ensures its clients’ data execution continuously informs the planning process, enabling a more resilient, agile and profitable operation.

“The Siemens tool is sensational and the APS3 team is too,” says Alecksander Cesconetto, director at Inter Link do Brasil. “I always highly recommend it.”