Next Generation Applications
The scale of industrial information growth has reached a critical point, and will only continue to grow faster with the approach of Industry 4.0 and the Industrial Internet of Things. Organizations already operate with an increasing number of systems, requiring significant maintenance teams, causing mass proliferation of interfaces, and the generation of under-utilized, isolated data.
Introducing NEST API
LS Optimal recognizes that future solutions will require highly flexible and capable services to enable organizations to focus their development efforts on leveraging capabilities that aid their operations rather than on building capabilities! At the core of this movement is the need to aggregate information around a single platform to create transparent priorities, drive action, and maximize organizational potential.
Instantly leverage years of experience and knowledge without the development cost
Access sophisticated algorithms and a novel aproach to production control
Utilize a robust and flexible data model with strongly-typed classes
Available Functions
Achieving this requires an intelligent production control system which can provide visibility to constrained outcomes such that risk can be managed and decisions made. But any solver will not do. While many solvers can generate a production outcome, the method used will greatly influence how the solution can be implemented and the user adoption.
Our NEST API enables your application to execute two core functions: Scheduling and Planning, and many additional hooks to integrate other systems and extensions. Together, these functions extend the LS Optimal optimization technique, allowing you to build your next generation enterprise platform.
Scheduling
This function represents the individual, modularized functional departments and their specific scheduling parameters. The function allows for varying objectives and a wide-array of scheduling parameters specific to different modes of manufacture such as machining, welding, assembly, batch processing, and more. The function can be used to identify the optimal dispatch for the currently available work, including fixed scheduled tasks, or react in near real-time to production variability.
Modular solvers can be adapted to any functional department
Solve & optimize short-term production
Generate results in near real-time
Planning
A comprehensive function that utilizes the modular scheduling solvers to achieve dual-objective optimization. The planning algorithm will guide the facility towards minimal lateness, while allowing local capacity maximization. Several modes of planning exist to control how to integrate fixed scheduling results, released work, unreleased work, and planned orders. Ideal for short, mid, and long-term planning, including quoting, release management, buy decisions, and capacity planning.
Gain visibility to projected on-time delivery
Quote deliverable promise dates and manage risk
Identify limitations and proactively drive action
Our experience with multiple modes of manufacturing has required us to overcome many scheduling challenges, resulting in a very robust and flexible data model. The data model is the core strategy used to integrate system data into production outcomes, using our strongly-typed classes. The functions can then be accessed through a consumable service or directly integrated as a developement package.
A standard implementation will require the customer to create integration queries to transform their industrial data into the data model, and a method to call the functions such as through scheduled executions or user interaction. It is also likely that the customer may want to store the input or output data, so a database schema may be necessary. Once this core is created, your organization can begin building interfaces to interact with the data and control the production control behavior.
Extensions
In addition to the core API, LS Optimal has plans to develop add-on functions to extend features and address specialty requirements. These extensions may include new functions to offer a new capability, such as CNC programming & Tooling management. Or new solvers to address a particularly challenging area of manufacturing. Finally, they may extend the data model to extend the current capabilities. These extensions will be a result of community feedback and examples of ingenuity in implementation.
Deployement Methods
Consulting Services & Training
Our team is highly skilled at implenting the NEST API to achieve an operational system within varying technical and industrial environments. Our team can use this experience to help guide your organization through the process of architecting a new platform solution, and how to integegrate disparate systems into an aggregated enterprise paltform. We utilize our API to build our own Software Platform, and can offer guidance and recipes on how to construct different interfaces.
Services are billed seperately from Maintenance contracts