AxTim: Enterprise Planning Optimizer

2022: Optimizer View

On August 17, 2022, AksTim LLC (ex-Aksencher) presented a prototype optimizer for building a medium-term plan (S&OP) for large production enterprises.

The peculiarity of the solution is that it allows you to build a production plan using any solvers available on the market (both commercial and open source). The solution also allows you to speed up the planning process when working with a large amount of data. If usually the full plan run takes several hours, then when working in the presented system - only 1-2 minutes.

Thanks to this speed, companies can perform multiple plan calculations, taking into account changes in data. Or carry out scenario analysis - check which plan will be optimal when changing the demand/purchase forecast, repair schedule and other introductory ones.

Given the constant challenges faced by Russian enterprises, the planning optimizer will provide them with greater flexibility and accuracy in decision-making. This is a completely Russian development that replaces Western products, - said Mikhail Barinov, director of Technology practice at AksTim.

According to him, with the departure of foreign software vendors from the Russian market, the need for companies to automate planning based on domestic systems has grown.

An important component of planning systems is the solver, a module that optimizes different classes of problems. With the departure of large Western vendors, companies need products with the ability to use one of the available solvers, high speed of operation, developed in terms of functionality, with the ability to expand. Our optimizer fully meets these requirements. The solution architecture allows you to easily implement product development, use additional data sets and business requirements, - said Mikhail Barinov.

According to him, the system can be used as an optimizer to form a production plan for a period of 12-18 months and maximize financial indicators.

The prototype was created in just two months by the AksTim team. It was tested in the production processes of a large metallurgical holding. The time for calculating the production plan was less than a minute (an average of 10-20 seconds) on full data (3000 + specifications and products and 70 aggregates).

For August 2022, the solution takes into account the main parameters of production planning - accounting for procurement costs, storage, transfer, constant and variable production costs, various sales, production and transfer options. Additional functions are being tested that can be useful to other companies - taking into account lead-time when moving, discrete restrictions (size of production batches) and others, - added Dmitry Toporov, Managing Director of AksTim.

According to him, the basic model contains a standard set of restrictions and rules of business logic. Additional rules can be quickly added by configuration, without changing the main tested model code.

Developers plan to expand the capabilities of the software product for other industries.