Any information or digital system is not simply a matter of maintaining foundational data and going live. As products in a smart factory are continuously updated, markets evolve, production processes improve, and business workflows change, the system’s data and business process design must also be continuously revised and enhanced in response to business changes.

For example, data models, rule models, process route models, and various foundational data and parameters need ongoing supplementation and revision within the system.

1. Ensure the product BOM structure is clear. Unlike the production BOM (procurement BOM) in ERP, APS typically includes a more detailed process route BOM or manufacturing BOM. Depending on needs or enterprise capabilities, the granularity of the process BOM can be defined down to operation materials, while managing multiple manufacturing BOMs.

2. Clearly define product process routes. In mass production, due to high repetition, clear process routes are essential.

3. Strive for customized production or small batch production. When product design cannot provide a definitive process route upfront, special approaches can be explored (e.g., small enterprises may use first-time manual assignment combined with historical process route recommendations).

4. Ensure material processes correspond to equipment. Through resource management configuration, product-to-material and product-to-resource (equipment, tooling, fixtures, etc.) settings can support multiple materials produced on the same equipment or one material produced on multiple equipment.

5. Ensure one-to-one correspondence between personnel and equipment. In production management, personnel should be managed as part of resource management, with one-to-one mapping to equipment for calculating labor performance.

6. Prioritize bottleneck materials. Material bottlenecks can be set in the system, with material calculation and locking prioritized.

7. If equipment bottlenecks exist, seek alternatives. Predefine equipment bottlenecks in the system.

8. Adopt special scheduling methods for bottleneck processes to prioritize resource input and production. Other processes should coordinate scheduling with the bottleneck process, modifying or adjusting their plans accordingly.

9. Ensure customer priority in production scheduling. Set customer priority levels in the system and adjust order priorities accordingly.

10. Ensure accuracy of capacity quotas. Factors such as personnel, equipment, parallel equipment, changeover, and product switching all affect capacity calculation. Decision-makers need to define capacity calculation models for each product in the system based on actual conditions.

11. Create a factory calendar. The factory calendar can be refined to workshop, production line, equipment, and product levels for work calendar and shift management.

12. Forecast procurement lead time. Planning scheduling uses DDMRP (Dynamic MRP) for material requirements planning. Dynamic MRP can retrieve the latest shop floor schedule and execution results to trigger MRP calculations in real time, dynamically adjusting material requirements based on on-site production conditions. Adjustments can be refined to shifts or specific times for material procurement.

13. Forecast production lead time. Manage time for changeover, setup, and preparation in the system. If equipment cycle time changes cannot be fed back to the system in a timely manner, it is recommended to adopt IoT and other means to collect equipment data in real time in the future.