5 Core Components of APS Software: Demand to Delivery | PlanetTogether

Quick Answer: What are the 5 components of APS software?

APS software typically includes five connected planning layers: demand planning and forecasting, production planning, production scheduling, distribution planning, and transportation planning. Together, they link what customers will need with what your operation can make, when it can make it, and how product moves through the network—so plans stay feasible when capacity, materials, constraints, or priorities change.

Advanced Planning and Scheduling (APS) refers to the management of processes involved in the optimization of raw materials and resource capacity within a production facility. When manufacturing operations are highly complex and have a lot of products competing for the same resources, it can be extremely challenging to create a schedule that optimizes the use of each resource.

APS software can properly analyze manufacturing logistics over short, intermediate, and long-term periods. This software uses mathematical algorithms to enhance the operational efficiency within a production facility.

PlanetTogether’s APS system simultaneously plans and schedules materials, labor, and resource capacity. It automatically accounts for all material or resource constraints, run rates, and other scheduling preferences to generate an optimized but feasible production schedule. 

PlanetTogether APS software enables fast and flexible capacity planning, production scheduling, and MRP connected to an organization’s existing ERP system. Despite the multitude of functions achieved by an ERP system, it lacks the strategic decision-making functions that an Advanced Planning and Scheduling system has.

These strategic functions can aid facilities through production planning, scheduling, bottleneck visibility, and materials distribution. Before implementing an Advanced Planning and Scheduling software (APS), it is essential to understand the basic components of it.

The 5 Core Components of APS Software

The five components of advanced planning and scheduling software (APS) include:

• Demand Planning and Forecasting

  Demand forecasting is the process of predicting what the demand for certain products will be in the future. It identifies what both current and future customers will want to buy and tells manufacturing facilities what they should actually produce. Demand forecasting is conducted through the analysis of historical sales data, statistical forecasts, client intent surveys, and more. Demand planning is an integral component of manufacturing operations that wish to properly produce the correct amount of products without increasing inventory cost and creating excess waste.
  
  

• Production Planning

  Production planning is the process in which a manufacturing operation ensures that raw materials, staff, and other resources within the operation are prepared to create finished products according to a specified schedule. A production plan can serve as a guide for a company’s production activities and establishes a sequence of activities that must be carried out in order to achieve a production target. Production planning can be challenging as it must account for the availability of raw materials, resource capacity, and actual or forecasted demand.
  
  

• Production Scheduling

  This component is the process of arranging, controlling, and optimizing work within a production process. The scheduling component builds from the demand and the production plan to generate a schedule that production is able to carry out. The benefits of an advanced production scheduling system include inventory reduction, reduced product changeover time, reduced scheduling effort, and labor load leveling. Production scheduling is an extremely important component within the production facility but it can be challenging to manually generate an efficient, optimized, and accurate production schedule. 
  
  

• Distribution Planning

  Distribution planning is the method that is utilized for planning orders within a supply chain. This component is based on a demand forecast to calculate the inventory requirements for various time-frames. Distribution planning coordinates the demand for a future period with the on-hand inventory and the safety stock requirements for the period. Overall, this component carries out how much inventory of each material or part is needed to achieve high order-fulfillment status.
  
  

• Transportation Planning 

  Transportation planning is defined as the planning and management processes required to transport people and goods throughout the supply chain. This process is a collaborative effort that looks to identify the transportation needs of a facility and assess the efficiency, cost, and design of the transportation model. Transportation planning also involves defining future policies, goals, investments, and designs to adequately prepare for any future transportation needs.

One of the biggest challenges encountered within manufacturing facilities is that many of the processes outlined above are performed separately. This means that the planning of materials, capacity, and labor are separate from one another and from the scheduling components.

With PlanetTogether APS, every process from order entry to warehouse management, production scheduling, and materials planning have ALL become more responsive and able to plan better than ever.

CHUCK DI PIETRO, DIRECTOR OF PROCUREMENT & PLANNING, BEMA INCORPORATED

 

PlanetTogether’s Advanced Planning and Scheduling (APS) software quickly and automatically creates a concurrent production plan and schedule that takes into consideration all of the constraints, sequencing preferences, and management priorities you have. This software has been able to take production facilities to the next level in terms of waste elimination, proper utilization of resources, and efficiency optimization.

Decision Framework: Which APS Component Should You Improve First?
Use this quick diagnostic to prioritize the APS capability that will create the biggest operational lift:

• Forecast volatility or frequent expediting? Start with Demand Planning & Forecasting (and improve forecast horizons, bias, and SKU segmentation).
• Demand looks fine, but capacity and materials don’t line up? Prioritize Production Planning (rough-cut capacity, materials readiness, feasible plans).
  
  
• Plans are feasible, but the schedule still breaks daily? Focus on Production Scheduling (finite constraints, changeovers, labor, downtime).
  
  
• Multi-warehouse replenishment problems or service-level misses? Improve Distribution Planning (DRP logic, safety stock, reorder timing).
  
  
• Lead-time variability, high freight cost, or missed delivery windows? Prioritize Transportation Planning (mode, routing, ship dates aligned to schedule).

Advanced Planning and Scheduling (APS) Software

Advanced Planning and Scheduling Softwares have become a must for modern-day manufacturing operations as customer demand for increased product assortment, fast delivery, and downward cost pressures become prevalent. These systems help planners save time while providing greater agility in updating ever-changing priorities, production schedules, and inventory plans. APS Systems can be quickly integrated with an ERP/MRP software to fill the gaps where these systems lack planning and scheduling flexibility, accuracy, and efficiency.

With PlanetTogether APS you can:

• Create optimized schedules that balance production efficiency and delivery performance

• Maximize throughput on bottleneck resources to increase revenue

• Synchronize supply with demand to reduce inventories

• Provide company-wide visibility to resource capacity

• Enable scenario data-driven decision making

The implementation of an Advanced Planning and Scheduling (APS) Software will take your manufacturing operations to the next level of production efficiency by taking advantage of the operational data you already possess in your ERP system. APS is a step in the right direction of efficiency and lean manufacturing production enhancement. Try out a free demo!

PlanetTogether APS Software Overview Video

Modern planning breaks down when demand, capacity, materials, and labor are managed in separate tools. PlanetTogether APS brings those decisions together—so planners can build feasible, optimized schedules that account for real constraints, improve bottleneck visibility, and stay aligned with ERP/MRP data as priorities change.

In this video, you’ll see how PlanetTogether APS helps you:

• Connect ERP/MRP data to constraint-based capacity planning and scheduling
• Create and update feasible production schedules faster when demand changes
• Improve bottleneck visibility and shop-floor execution with clearer priorities
• Run what-if scenarios to evaluate tradeoffs between delivery and efficiency
• Align planning across materials, labor, and resources—without spreadsheet churn

If you’re evaluating APS, the next step is mapping scope, integration approach, and a realistic rollout plan—before you commit to timelines or internal resourcing.

Ready to move from “APS concepts” to an implementation plan?

APS only delivers value when it’s implemented with the right scope, integration approach, and ownership across operations and IT. This guide lays out what an APS rollout looks like in practice—so you can evaluate fit, plan resources, and avoid common rollout pitfalls as you move beyond spreadsheets and ERP-only scheduling.

Download the guide to get clarity on:

• What APS should do (minimum capabilities and outcomes)
• How APS integrates with ERP (including bi-directional data flow)
• What data you’ll need from ERP (BOMs/recipes, routings, resources, inventories)
• On-premise vs. cloud tradeoffs for APS deployments
• Testing, proof-of-concept, and rollout responsibilities by role