Coordination and integration

Abstract

A strong coordination (i. e. the configuration of data flows and the division of planning tasks to modules) of APS modules is a prerequisite to achieve consistent plans for the different planning levels and for each entity of the supply chain. The same data should be used for each de-centralized planning task and decision. APS can be seen as add-ons to existing ERP systems with the focus on planning tasks and not on transactional tasks. In most cases an ERP system will be a kind of leading system where the main transactional data are kept and maintained. The data basis of APS is incrementally updated and major changes on master data are made in the ERP system. This task will be called integration of APS with ERP systems. © 2008 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.