APS is just software that decides what to make on which machine and when, so you hit your delivery dates. If your ERP’s MRP plans as if every machine has infinite hours, this page shows why finite, machine-wise scheduling matters — and where Fast Planning Software fits for a manufacturing SME.
APS is software that decides what to make on which machine and when, so you hit your delivery dates. The word “advanced” only means it goes one step past ordinary MRP. A plain MRP run works out what to make and buy and roughly when, but it usually assumes every machine has unlimited hours. APS adds the part that decides your real delivery date: which machine does the work, in what order, and whether that machine actually has the capacity that week.
For an Indian manufacturing SME, that difference is the gap between a plan on paper and a plan the shop floor can run. This page compares the three ways manufacturers do scheduling today — by hand, with ERP-bundled MRP, and with a dedicated finite-capacity tool — and shows where Fast Planning Software fits. No invented vendor scores; just an honest look at the approaches.
The dates look fine on screen, but two orders are quietly stacked on the same machine in the same week and one of them will be late.
When a hot order jumps the queue, someone re-plans everything downstream by hand and hopes nothing important was missed.
Sales asks “can we commit the 20th?” and nobody can answer without walking the floor, because the schedule isn't capacity-checked.
You discover a work centre was the constraint after the dispatch slips, not a week earlier when you could still have shifted work.
A fair, side-by-side view of how manufacturers schedule — not a ranking of named vendors.
| What APS should do | Manual / spreadsheet | ERP-bundled MRP | Finite APS (Fast Planning) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Decide which machine runs each job | In someone's head | Usually not scheduled to machine | Loaded to machine / work centre |
| Respect finite machine hours | No | Often infinite-capacity | Daily load & % loading per machine |
| Use real cycle & setting times | Rough estimates | Sometimes | Standard times from the process sheet |
| Re-sequence to protect a date | Manual re-plan | Limited | DayPilot Gantt, order & resource priority |
| Give a capacity-checked promise date | No | Weak | Yes, from the finite schedule |
| Show plan vs actual & OEE next day | No | Limited | Shop-floor booking to OEE dashboards |
| Best fit | Very small, simple shops | Firms happy with rough dates | Indian SMEs that must hit customer schedules |
How we put this together: the columns describe the three scheduling approaches Indian manufacturers actually choose between. Capabilities in the “finite APS” column are Fast Planning Software features documented on this site. We do not score other named products, because a fair comparison depends on your exact edition and setup — ask and we will run a live comparison against what you use today.
See daily load and percentage loading per machine and the load from pending work, so you never schedule 130 percent onto one work centre (finite machine loading).
Each operation carries standard cycle and setting times from its process sheet, so the schedule is grounded in how long the job truly takes (process sheets & routing).
Drag work by order and resource priority to slot in a hot order and protect a promised date, and the schedule re-orders instantly (DayPilot Gantt scheduling).
BOM explosion and netting against stock and open supply produce the work orders and purchase requisitions the schedule runs on (MRP explosion & netting).
Because the plan is capacity-checked and sequenced, you can commit a realistic delivery date and see the day an order starts to slip (order priority & plan vs actual).
Book production by shift, machine and operator and read utilization, efficiency and OEE dashboards so measured performance feeds the next schedule (OEE & efficiency dashboards).
Finite, not infinite. Fast Planning loads each operation onto the machine that runs it on standard cycle and setting times, and shows daily load, percentage loading and projected availability — so an overloaded work centre is visible before it becomes a late delivery. That is the heart of advanced planning and scheduling.
One platform, MRP to OEE. Netting, work orders, purchase requisitions, scheduling and shop-floor booking share the same item master, BOM and stock ledger as Fast Production and Fast Inventory. There is no interface between the schedule and the floor, and no data copy to reconcile.
Sized and supported for SMEs. Deploy cloud or on-premise, for one plant or several, licensed per user or per plant. Every engagement includes requirement analysis, implementation with sign-off before build, onsite and video training, and support over email, phone, WhatsApp and remote tools. It integrates with your existing systems, including Tally where relevant.
Grow into it. Start with MRP and netting, then switch on machine loading, finite scheduling and OEE when you are ready — all on one platform, so there is no second implementation project.
Different shops schedule differently. Fast Planning serves each on the same netting, machine-loading, Gantt and OEE engine — cloud or on-premise, across India and worldwide.
Schedule confirmed orders against per-order BOMs.
Explore →Finite machine loading and Gantt sequencing.
Explore →Cycle-time-driven capacity and schedule adherence.
Explore →Batch process sheets, netting and scheduling.
Explore →Bring one product's BOM and a week of orders. We'll show you finite machine loading and a Gantt schedule on your own data in a free demo — then send an itemised quote within 48 hours.
