We have a few blends of product that need to sit in the tank overnight to finish processing. Our shift is M-TH 6:00am - 4:30pm. The tank (machine) shows the same schedule, but we have machine time on the BOM as 16 hours. The APS module is scheduling it over 2 - 3 days depending on the start time. Our employees do not need to be present for the processing to take place once ingredients are placed in the tank. If I change the machine shift to 24/7, it still will not calculate appropriately. If I change the work center to have the 24/7 shift, it schedules around the clock. I have tried to use queue time and finish time as well, but they are not yielding appropriate results either. Essentially, I need 1-2 hours of shift time and the remaining is processing time overnight, then the tank can be emptied the following morning, cleaned and reused. Is it possible to replicate this scenario on a BOM & in the APS module?
APS machine time vs shift
Unfortunately, we don’t have the ability to designate a portion of the setup or runtime of a work center as being unattended. We do have items in the future plan that can address this.
As for what you can do in the existing system, you have a couple options, but I regard this as the “best”:
You can alter the shift calendar efficiency to account for the difference in clock and shift time. The straight math for this would be 24/10.5, but you can roughly adjust this to account for the general ratio of attended to unattended time. This isn’t a perfect solution, but it does keep the inter-operation transfer times within the proper time aperture.
We’re currently working on enhancements to APS that will better model scenarios like this.
At this time, it is not possible to fully replicate this scenario in APS. The system schedules at the work center level, not at the individual machine level. Because of this, machines and work centers should share the same calendar; otherwise, capacity may not be consumed as expected. This is the current limitation of APS.
Additionally, all operation times and fixed times including run, finish, queue, and move time are evaluated against the assigned shift calendar, which is why they did not behave as expected in this scenario.
You may try the following workaround if it fits your production process:
Split the operation into two steps using two different work centers:
- In the first operation, use only Setup Time to represent the employee working time under the regular shift calendar (you may use a dummy work center for this step).
- In the second operation, use Run Time if the duration depends on quantity; otherwise, use Setup or Finish Time (for example, Finish Time = 16:00 hours). Assign this operation to a different work center (Tank) with a 24/7 calendar to represent the overnight processing.
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