The hype is over - and this is fine!
Advanced Planning Systems (APS) have become a mature technology
in the past years. Investments in APS have to undergo the same standard
software evaluation and financial appraisal process as any other investment. It
no longer suffices to argue that“we have to be at the front edge of technology”.
And still there is a large number of rewarding applications for APS. Three
of these have become new case studies in this fourth edition. Unfortunately,
a fourth case study has been withdrawn in the last minute because the client
company regards its APS solution a key element of becoming the leader in
its sector - expertise which they do not want to share with their competitors.
A second development to mention is the tendency to avoid the term“System”
in AP”S”. Instead some prefer the term Advanced Planning Modules
which better reflects the capability to combine some of its modules with
other software components (e.g. for Supply Chain Event Management) to
form an individual Supply Chain (SC) solution. However, the information
flows among modules described in this book now even become more important
for the quality of the SC solution generated. Hence, there is no reason
for us to refrain from the term APS or to change the concept of our book.
Readers familiar with the third edition will realize that not only chapters
have been reorganized and updated to the state-of-the-art but also that
there has been much fine-tuning of technical issues like for the index and
the references. This is due to Christian Seipl who took over the “burden” of
administering the chapters. Many thanks to him! We are also indebted to a
number of consultants and practitioners for providing advice and proofreading
parts of the book, especially with respect to the description of selected
APS.
Now it is up to you, dear reader, to make the best use of this fourth
edition!