Boost your Smart Factory
with AI Production Planning

Significantly improve on-time delivery and lead times, and optimize the use of all production resources with Kayros AI-powered cognitive production planning.

The backbone of your Smart Factory

At the heart of any smart factory is a production planning and scheduling engine that drives efficiency, flexibility, and cost-effectiveness. However, not just any algorithm will suffice; to maximize production, a high-performance, agile, and advanced planning engine is essential.

Kayros is a cutting-edge production planning engine that leverages AI-powered cognitive planning to optimize the use of all production resources. By streamlining production routes, minimizing costs, maximizing on-time delivery, and adhering to various technical requirements, Kayros goes beyond mere planning and scheduling.

Kayros is the backbone that propels your production to peak productivity, even in the most complex production environments.

Highlights

While superior AI drives exceptional scheduling and planning, production-ready scheduling demands meticulous precision. Kayros excels in this area by combining extraordinary planning performance with an unparalleled focus on detail.

AI Master Data Extraction

Automatically creating & maintaining digital production twins just from MES/ERP accounting data

"What if" - analyses

Simulate whether a specific order pool can be produced with the available production capacity and determine the total time for production and the estimated costs.

Dynamic planning

The great speed of Kayros allows for dynamic production planning, maintaining an always up-to-date production plan with respect to the latest changes.

How Kayros works

Our production planning software can be integrated with any existing ERP and MES IT systems.

  • Kayros plans the entire order pool in the shortest possible time.

    Any capacity bottlenecks are identified well in advance and can be avoided effectively. This creates scope for decision-making and ensures that deadlines are met.

  • Kayros has its own language for modeling and describing machines and production networks

    With this flexibility, Kayros can model even the most diverse requirements of mechanical engineering.

  • Kayros always knows the exact structure of the production network.

    It records the transport routes and helps to minimize the transport of materials between machines.

  • Kayros automatically determines the most efficient production flow.

    It independently considers all possible production alternatives that meet the product's requirements and selects the most efficient one.

Features

While superior AI drives exceptional scheduling and planning, production-ready scheduling demands meticulous precision. Kayros excels in this area by combining extraordinary planning performance with an unparalleled focus on detail.

Bottleneck Compensation

Distributing production orders across the whole available production network

Product Routing

Identification of the most appropriate route per product through the production network

Tool management

Ensuring that special tools are available in the right place at the required time

Transport management

Identification of the most efficient production routes across machines, halls and sites

SUCCESS STORY

Improving on-time delivery in a complex production planning process

Vacom Vakuum Komponenten & Messtechnik GmbH is a vacuum specialist that produces many components to customer specifications. The 322-strong company operates worldwide and generates annual revenues of more than 35 million euros.

Challenge

Vacom has 1,200 orders in constant circulation, each with up to 20 operations, two to three orders per machine per day, and a planning horizon of six months. The challenge was to resolve the conflicts between meeting all planned delivery dates and reducing overall costs (setup and lead times) while respecting certain constraints. In addition, manual planning was no longer feasible due to the high complexity of the production processes.

Solution

The solution was AI-based planning using MPDV's Fedra Advanced Planning and Scheduling System (APS), powered by Kayros. As an integrated part of MPDV's MES system, Kayros calculated a production plan with 28,000 steps on 700 machines on a standard PC in less than 60 minutes.

“The Smart Factory approach has enabled us to increase production by 25 percent. At least 10 percent of this performance increase is due to better production planning with Kayros!”

Kevin Mahler

Chief Operating Officer, Vacom

With the help of Kayros, Vacom is able to identify and avoid capacity bottlenecks in advance. The total time saved in production planning with AI-based planning is around 50% compared to manual planning. This has increased Vacom's production output by at least 10%.

More features

While superior AI drives exceptional scheduling and planning, production-ready scheduling demands meticulous precision. Kayros excels in this area by combining extraordinary planning performance with an unparalleled focus on detail.

State-dependent setup

Each job starts with a setup, the cost and duration of which depends on the previous job on the machine.

Performance variability

Duration and costs for a job can vary from machine to machine.

Blocking times and breaks

Pre-defined slots for maintenance and break times.

Job dependencies

Some jobs may only start when another job is finished

People skills

Taking skill-sets of specialists into account for special tasks

Stock accounting

A job can only start, if the material it consumes is available. Also, it produces new materials potentially for other jobs.

...and more.

FAQ

What kind of planning is Kayros best suited for?

Kayros is designed for comprehensive fine planning.

Do I need to have a centralized fine planning process to use Kayros?

Yes, Kayros performs fine planning through a centralized system managed by a planner or dispatcher. If you plan to use a centralized approach, Kayros can offer significant advantages.

What system requirements are needed for integrating Kayros?

To integrate Kayros, you need a system (typically MES or ERP) that can handle communication with Kayros. Specifically, the system should have the following capabilities:

  • Accept planning suggestions from Kayros and represent them in a draft status.
  • Include an approval workflow that allows parts of the proposal to be fixed or locked in.
  • Support manual fine planning with a draft module for adjustments.

Does Kayros require major changes to my current systems?

No, Kayros is a non-invasive tool. It works alongside your existing systems, requiring minimal disruption while adding fine planning capabilities.

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