Research by Preactor exposes extent of Advanced Planning and Scheduling myths

Preactor International, the UKs leading specialist advanced planning and scheduling software company, announces the results of a comprehensive research project into the widespread extent of APS myths.

The unique research, undertaken at its annual global partner event, held in Chippenham, UK, involved collating responses from a wide range of global partners specialising in the sales and implementation of APS software regarding common misconceptions held within the manufacturing community about the suitability of APS as a tool. Specifically, partners were asked to identify whether they had encountered manufacturers which had cited any of 10 common myths for not seeing APS as beneficial to their businesses. Partners were then asked to identify any myths they had subsequently helped a manufacturer to see through before going on to receive the widely acknowledged benefits of APS.

The most widely experienced myth, with a 100% score, was I dont need APS because I use a spreadsheet for my capacity planning and scheduling. The myth with the highest score (87.5%) for being demonstrably false was, I dont need APS because we use a project planning to schedule.

Other most widely experienced myths for not being able to benefit from APS are:

It takes too long to implement and is too costly for a small company like us 86%
My ERP system already has a scheduling module 79%
We dont have the required data readily available 79%
My process is too fast moving and complex to use a computer to schedule 71%
Im running a Lean initiative 64%

Myths that were most consistently disproved, leading to manufacturers then investing in APS are:

We couldnt integrate with out ERP 80%
We use a spreadsheet for capacity planning and scheduling 79%
My process is too fast moving and complex to use a computer to schedule 50%
We dont have the required data readily available 50%
It takes too long to implement and is too costly for a small company like us 43%

Mike Novels, Preactors CEO comments on the significance of the findings. Perhaps the most significant fact to emerge from this unique survey of global APS expertise is that every one of the 10 myths listed in the survey had been experienced by at least one partner. 7 out of the 10 myths had been experienced by over 50% of the partners which confirms our view that manufacturers still need to be further educated about the sheer versatility and power of APS technology to bring genuine business benefits. The fact that 8 of 10 myths had been effectively disproved in at least 50% of cases, with manufacturers going on to invest and benefit from APS technology reinforces this. At Preactor, we have over 1600 installations globally and have over 60 fully documented case studies which clearly show how manufacturers the world over can, and should, be benefiting from what is a very affordable technology.

With regard to the 100% incidence of partners encountering the myth that spreadsheets are a sufficient reason not to use APS, Novels is unsurprised but clearly frustrated. We have long since identified the spreadsheet as our biggest competitor and this confirms our belief. However, the sad reality is that while spreadsheets do in cases provide manufacturers with some scheduling functionality, this is always going to be much more limited than using APS. A significant number of our customers used to use spreadsheets until they simply couldnt handle the complexity or provide the overall schedule visibility that is increasingly required in todays highly competitive market place. Sadly, many companies will continue making do with spreadsheets instead of making the best use of their resources and doing their best for their customers.