TABLE OF CONTENTS Herbert Meyr [1] , Michael Wagner [2] and Jens Rohde [3]
APS have been launched independently by different software companies at different points in time. Nevertheless, a common structure underlying most of the APS can be identified. APS typically consist of several software modules (eventually again comprising several software components), each of them covering a certain range of planning tasks (see Rohde et al. (2000)).
In Sect. 4.2 the most important tasks of supply chain planning have been introduced and classified in the two dimensions planning horizon and supply chain process by use of the SCP-Matrix (Fig. 4.3). As Fig. 5.1 shows, certain planning sections of the SCP-Matrix, e. g. mid-term procurement, production and distribution, are typically covered by a respective software module. The names of the modules vary from APS provider to APS provider, but the planning tasks that are supported are basically the same. In Fig. 5.1 supplier-independent names have been chosen that try to characterize the underlying planning tasks of the respective software modules.
APS typically do not support all of the planning tasks that have been identified in Sect. 4.2. In the remainder of the book it will be shown which tasks are actually considered (Part II), how to select and implement APS (Part III), how to build models using software modules (Part IV) and which solution methods are commonly used (Part VI). In the meantime, the following provides an overview of the structure of...
