Reimagining Production Planning & Scheduling

A Solution Built by Planners, for Planners

Turning decades of factory insight into smarter scheduling – how SYSTEMA’s real-world experience shaped a new kind of planning tool.

Manufacturing Planning Problem: Off‑the‑Shelf Schedulers Hold You Back

Picture this: It’s Monday morning in a high-mix, high-volume fab. Orders are piling up, machines are running at full tilt, and your scheduling system says everything is green. But your operators? They’re firefighting. Your KPIs? Slipping.

You’ve done everything by the book—but the system doesn’t see the bottlenecks, doesn’t adapt, doesn’t help you make real-world decisions.

We’ve seen this story unfold in fabs all over the world. For too long, manufacturers have been forced to bend their operations to fit inflexible, off-the-shelf planning solutions. Instead of empowering teams, these tools create hidden workarounds, disconnected spreadsheets, and costly inefficiencies.

At SYSTEMA, we believed there had to be a better way.

Why We Built Our Own Planning & Scheduling Solution

For more than 30 years, we’ve lived and breathed manufacturing integration—working alongside production teams, interfacing with equipment, and connecting MES, ERP, and automation systems through our EI Suite. This boots-on-the-ground experience gave us a clear view: most planning tools weren’t built with production flexibility in mind.

Time and again, we saw planners adapting their workflows to suit the limitations of a software system—rather than the other way around. The result? Missed opportunities, compromised performance, and frustrated teams.

This motivated us to build a new kind of Advanced Planning & Scheduling (APS) solution—one that reflects the realities of modern manufacturing. And we built it not from a clean slate, but as a natural extension of EDDi, our proven Event-Driven Dispatcher.

Put an End to Scheduling Workarounds

We’ve met planners who keep their “real” scheduling logic in a spreadsheet hidden behind the main system—because it’s the only way to get things done. That’s the cost of compromise: complex environments being simplified away by generic templates.

Our APS platform is different. It’s built to adapt to your factory’s logic—not the other way around. Whether you’re managing wafer starts, tool availability, or cleanroom constraints, our solution flexes with you.

True optimization means giving manufacturers control over their strategy, their rules, and their priorities. We set out to do just that—without asking anyone to sacrifice transparency or functionality in the process.

Built Collaboratively with Actual Production Planners

We didn’t build our APS solution in a vacuum. From day one, we brought real-world users into the loop—and recently we started hosting collaborative workshops with our customers in a demo fab environment to simulate real production conditions.

In our January session, a planner paused mid-simulation and said:

“This is the first time I can actually see how my decisions affect the entire line.”

That’s what these workshops are all about—putting planning logic to the test with realistic data, tools, and constraints. Participants experiment with FIFO, Kanban, priority rules, or custom strategies. With live KPI dashboards, they immediately see how each approach impacts throughput, bottlenecks, and WIP.

Real-World Feedback Shapes the APS Roadmap

Because we design and test in a simulated fab, the feedback we get is practical, specific, and immediate. It shapes our roadmap. It challenges our assumptions. And it helps us build a system that doesn’t just “work,” but works the way real people work.

The result is a platform that evolves with our users—flexible, intuitive, and ready for the realities of complex manufacturing.

Why Manufacturers Choose SYSTEMA APS

• Tailored Functionality
  No rigid templates—just the tools to reflect your real processes and logic.
• Future-Proof Architecture
  Built on EDDi’s event-driven core, ready for custom rules, new tools, and continuous change.
• Real-Time KPIs & Insights
  Plan, simulate, and act with confidence—see the downstream impact of every scheduling decision.
• Built-In Collaboration
  Regular workshops and hands-on feedback ensure we build alongside our users—not above them.
• Faster ROI with Less Risk
  Leverages proven SYSTEMA infrastructure for faster deployment and easy integration with existing systems.

This Isn’t Just Another Tool

We didn’t set out to build just another APS product. We set out to solve real problems - problems we’ve seen for decades in fabs across the globe.

Because we know what it’s like when tools don’t fit the process. We’ve seen the spreadsheets. The sticky notes. The disconnected dashboards. And we know how much better things can be.

Ready to See It for Yourself?

If you’re ready to move beyond rigid scheduling tools and spreadsheets that only half-work, we invite you to experience SYSTEMA APS firsthand.

Join one of our interactive workshops, test real-world scenarios in our demo fab, or request a personalized walkthrough of the platform.

Let’s build a planning solution that fits your factory—not the other way around.