The ABC of APS

Yes, I am old

Systems to support planning processes, which we refer to as Advanced Planning & Scheduling (APS), have been in use for over three decades. The first time I saw such systems myself was around 1993, which also marked the start of my PhD research on the human factor in production scheduling. Obviously, I was very interested in APS systems as they provided the required decision support for human planners and schedulers. It turned out that my professional life would revolve around APS systems. Throughout the years/decades, I have seen suppliers come and go and I have worked with people whom I often would meet again in different contexts. It is a small world and writing up this overview is like a walk through memory lane. I have tried to be complete and fair in my description of companies and systems, and when you believe I should make edits, feel free to contact me. I hope that reading this piece will make other oldtimers like me smile and think of the fun we had while improving planning.

The list

Adexa – A company that was founded in 1994, mainly focusing on hightech. Their brand name redirects to a company website for Eyelit, which I have never heard of. Adexa was acquired by Eyelit the day before this article was published.

AI Systems / PSI – I briefly interacted with the Belgian-founded AI systems around the year 2000 when they were selected to implement their Betaplanner solution at a steel hotmill in the Netherlands. They were later acquired by PSI where Luc Van Nerom is now heading the Belgian metals organization.

Anaplan –  Anaplan supports supply chain planning as well as other domains, such as finance, sales, marketing, IT and workforce. I never met them myself.

AspenTech – This APS supplier was and is mostly active in semi-process industries with a product called MIMI. I interacted with them around 2002 when I was doing a vendor selection for a manufacturing company in the Netherlands. They still seem to be in business with quite an extensive product range although the name MIMI seems to have been dropped.

Asprova – this APS vendor seems to be mainly active in the Japanese market. As I am not very active in the Japanese market (not at all, actually), I know little about them.

Blue Yonder – Blue Yonder is a very successful company implementing planning solutions for Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP) and Integrated Business Planning (IBP). They do have their roots in i2 Technologies and Manugistics.

Broner – Broner Metals was a provider of solutions in the field of APS and MES (manufacturing execution systems) for the steel and aluminum industry. I was working for a metals company in 2005 when their name came up. They were acquired in 2014 by PSI. Hello Joe Wotherspoon, does the Vorderman algorithm still exist?

Crovadis – this was the name of the Dutch company selling the APS solution called Moopi, which was developed by Berclain, a Canadian company. I visited them together with Mark Euwe and from Crovadis the meeting was hosted by Wim van Dijk, who is no longer with us. Crovadis was later acquired by Baan, a Dutch ERP supplier.

Fygir – the Five Young Guys getting Incredibly Rich company, one of the pioneers in the Dutch APS market. Their product started off from an implementation project at a food company in the Netherlands. Fygir focused on semi-process industries that produced food, beverages and other consumable goods. They had a strong footprint in the Dutch beer manufacturing market and I envied them for that. I first saw a demo of the product in what I think was 1994, and witnessed a presentation from Pieter Leijten at Eindhoven University of Technology also around that time. In 1996 I attended a customer demo given by Henk Jan Rijkse, who back then just graduated and entered the office sweating, with a big flycase holding a projector – these were huge devices in the past. I interacted with them again around 2002 when I was doing a vendor selection for a manufacturing company in the Netherlands, a project they won. The demo was given by Mark Karthaus who is now my colleague. By then, the company was known as Agilisys, after it was acquired by SCT, and later again it became Infor, which was acquired by Koch.

Greycon – a niche player in the paper and roll-based scheduling market. When there is some complicated pattern optimization to be solved, this is the kind of supplier to contact. One of their solutions is called DeckleBench, which does trim optimization. I interacted with them a few times during vendor selections for paper mills and attended a demo given by Constantine Goulimis.

i2 Technologies – around 2000, everybody in the world of supply chain planning knew i2. This was the leading US based APS supplier about to conquer the world with their tool called Rhythm. Their sales and marketing was aggressive, their pricing was very high and supposedly value based, and the promised value was astronomical. In 1999 I worked with them on a vendor selection for a metal producer, from i2 side assisted by Michel Waumans. Some years later, stories of failed implementations and broken promises started circulating the market and they were acquired by JDA in 2010.

Icron – a Turkish APS supplier that I got to know around 2010 when doing a vendor evaluation for a large Dutch high-tech manufacturer. They seem to be very flexible in supply chain modelling due to a visual coding environment. I attended a customer demo given by Z. Caner Taşkınand I once visited their Amsterdam office.

Intentia – this was a software company founded in 1984 that provided applications such as customer relationship management, supply chain management and asset management. They were acquired by Lawson. I never encountered them in my APS efforts.

JDA – the company that acquired the two main rivals in the APS market around 2010: i2 and Manugistics. Changed into Blue Yonder.

JD Edwards – the company that acquired Numetrix. In June 2003, JD Edwards agreed to sell itself to PeopleSoft and shortly after, Oracle launched a bid for PeopleSoft. In 2005, Oracle took ownership of the combined JD Edwards-PeopleSoft organization.

Kinaxis – another supplier who is very successful in the S&OP/IBP market.

Logiplan – this company developed the APS tool Logipro, and it was developed by Mr van der Lee somewhere in the 1990s. Van der Lee also published a yearly report on advanced planning systems in cooperation with Jos de Heij from Coopers & Lybrand. I can still find Logiplan on the web but do not know if this is the same software package, and I do not know if Mr van der Lee is still with us.

Limis – a Dutch and very affordable software vendor for production planning. They seem to focus on Small to Medium Enterprises and their solution seems to be broader than just planning.

Logility – I know next to nothing about Logility, except that they have been around for some time and they have been acquired by Aptean. The latter seems to focus on process industries.

Manugistics – like Coca and Pepsi cola, we had i2 and Manugistics operating in the high end of the APS market at around 2000 – 2005. Like i2 the company was swallowed by JDA.

Mimi – this software developed by Chesapeake was aimed at scheduling in the semi-process industry. They were acquired by AspenTech in 1998. I met them in 1996 when doing a vendor selection.

More Optimal – is a spinoff from Quintiq founded about 5 years ago by Anko van Kreij and Coen Verberk. Other ex-Quintiq employees whom I worked with and who work here are Stefan Forschelen, Ivar Schwartzmans and Dennis Ostendorf. Their product is similar to Quintiq, with the addition that they also solve warehouse puzzles.

Numetrix – headquartered in Toronto, Numetrix was founded in 1977. The company developed a solution, which supported planning within a company as well as planning between companies. JD Edwards took over Numetrix in 1999.

o9 – some of us see this as i2 resurrected, and they are one of the more recent additions to the APS market. They focus on S&OP/IBP.  Some of my ex colleagues work here, hello Linda Veldhuizen Umut Corbacioglu David Mokrauer Mattia Testi! And yassas to my old Greek friend Dimitris Pokas!

OMP – one of the first APS suppliers that I got to know, located near Antwerp in Belgium. I first visited them when I was a PhD student in 1993, a visit where I also met Ton De Kok (and carpooled with him in his bus), freshly appointed as a professor at Operations, Planning, Accounting & Control (OPAC) Group at TU/e and retired last year. The meeting was hosted by Anita Van Looveren and back then the company was called Beyers & Partners. The founders still run the show, contrarily to others who have sold off their company once it was able to make them a multi-millionaire. They seem to focus on semi-process industries, and offer planning solutions on different levels. They do have a strong background in optimization. I did a vendor selection with them in 2012 with Harmen Perk Jos van Heiningen and Luc Schepens.

Ortec – another Dutch company that has been around for a long time. Ortec seems to focus on transportation and workforce planning problems. They do have a strong background in academia. Although they are in my home country and we share some of our academic contacts, we managed to evade each other so far.

Ortems – a French company founded in 2004 that has a wide variety of customers. They offer manufacturing scheduling and planning. They were acquired by Dassault Systemes in 2016 and are now part of the Delmia brand, like Quintiq.

PMSim – this APS was developed in Denmark and I attended a customer demo given by Joanne Roos back in 1996 when trying to select an APS vendor for a bulk transshipment terminal (we did not find a suitable vendor till 2003). PMSim was then supplied by Largotim. PMSim was acquired in 1998 by Intentia (products: Movex Advanced Production Planner & Movex Multi-Site Planner), now Infor.

Preactor – an affordable APS that seems focused on discrete production planning and with thousands of implementations all around the world. I created a proof of concept using Preactor in 1996 with help from Guus De Ruiter and later encountered them in several software selections.

Quintiq – this product is my ‘home APS’ as I have been doing Quintiq projects since 2003, and I know the founders, especially Victor Allis, from cradle company Bolesian, which I joined in 1997. In 2014 Quintiq was acquired by Dassault Systèmes (my current employer). In principle, Quintiq can do many things as the software is extremely adaptable, but throughout the decades it has specialized in metals production, rail, transportation, workforce. They offer solutions for S&OP, MPS and scheduling.

Relex – this company focuses on supporting retailers and related manufacturers to improve forecast accuracy and optimize operations. When doing a short scan in 2020 at a UK retailer together with Rudi de Loor, I briefly saw their solution at work.

Scheduling Technology Group – this is a former APS developer, later associated with Manugistics, known for developing the Optimized Production Technology (OPT) concept. I saw nor met them.

SimAL – a German software supplier that focuses on food, semi-process and rail. I never interacted with them although I did include them in a longlist a few times.

Synquest – this was one of the suppliers that I regularly encountered on trade shows and in professional magazines around the year 2000, but I never ran into them at companies. In 2003 they were acquired by Viewlocity and they still seem to be in business under that name.

Thru-Put Technologies – my memory tells me this was inspired by the theories developed by Eliyahu Goldratt, focusing on the bottleneck when making a plan. Today, the company seems to offer a wide range of solutions for supply chain analysis.

TigrSoft – I include them in this list as I see them being mentioned in the AMR chart above. They seem to have their roots in Canada and India. I never encountered them, I have no idea what kind of APS they offer. It seems they have been acquired but I am unable to find out by whom and when.

Trapeze – a planning system specifically designed for vehicle planning to transport passengers. I met them in 2011 when observing a planner who was planning taxi services.

Visopt – I remember a presentation done by Yossi Rissin at the Eindhoven University of Technology around the year 2000 very well, as he was enthusiastically demonstrating his self-developed planning tool called Visopt. However, the company apparently shut down in 2003 after a few implementations.

Webplan – another supplier that was active around 2000 – 2005, and it evolved into Kinaxis.

Xelus – refers to the enterprise service management (ESM) and supply chain planning software from the company Xelus (later acquired by PTC in 2009 and integrated into their Servigistics suite), used by large organizations, particularly in aerospace and defense. I never encountered them myself.

Archeology approach

When assembling this list I have been going through my archives (yes, I keep everything, including emails since 1997) and looking up names on the web. It has been a fun exercise flavored with a bit of melancholy. Suppliers entered the market, some of them with more impact than others, and many of them were acquired or disappeared into nothingness.

The picture in the header of the article is from the magazine ITLogistiek, founded by Martijn Lofvers. It was the predecessor or SCM Magazine, still headed by Martijn. Around 2005 I had a column in ITLogistiek called ‘APS Dokter’, working together with Harm Beerens and Marieke Lenstra.

You might have noticed that I have excluded ERP suppliers that developed some kind of APS suite themselves. To be honest, I have never been impressed by what ERP suppliers would develop. My view is that good APS systems are invented by a small group of people with a good idea and they grow organically, until they are acquired and the founders cash in (with a few exceptions).

It could well be that my list is not complete and contains errors. If so, I would invite you to contact me so I can make corrections and additions. For now, I hope you enjoyed seeing all those names again that spelled the beginning of a new era in production control!