s.FOX | AI-supported production planning & intelligent production optimisation for Industry 4.0

No idea what’s going on?

You want to organ­ise your pro­duc­tion and man­u­fac­tur­ing plan­ning as effi­cient­ly as pos­si­ble to ensure a suc­cess­ful long-term busi­ness per­for­mance? Do you want to bring your pro­duc­tion orders into an opti­mal order to ensure bet­ter capac­i­ty util­i­sa­tion of your plants? Lit­tle Fun­Fact: The pro­duc­tion of just 10 prod­ucts results in 3.6 mil­lion pos­si­ble orders. Add in sup­ply bot­tle­necks, short-term loss of pro­duc­tion capac­i­ty, increas­ing deliv­ery pres­sure and unplanned staff short­ages and you can eas­i­ly lose track of things.

Want to get rid of your plan­ning and sched­ul­ing headaches? Stop wast­ing time man­u­al­ly updat­ing Excel spread­sheets and start using our intel­li­gent pro­duc­tion plan­ning soft­ware s.FOX.

Learn more
s.Fox Diagramm
The chal­lenge

Efficient production planning with AI

For man­u­fac­tur­ing com­pa­nies today, cre­at­ing an effi­cient pro­duc­tion plan and deter­min­ing the opti­mal sequence of pro­duc­tion orders is more of a chal­lenge than ever before. It requires a lot of time, excel­lent man­age­ment and a great deal of expe­ri­ence. Cre­at­ing effi­cient pro­duc­tion plans in Excel has become vir­tu­al­ly impos­si­ble today, but is still done by many organ­i­sa­tions. Not only is this exer­cise time-con­sum­ing but it also takes up a lot of man­pow­er!

The ever-increas­ing vari­ety of prod­ucts and options increas­es the com­plex­i­ty of the entire pro­duc­tion process. Added to this are fac­tors such as dis­trib­uted man­u­fac­tur­ing across mul­ti­ple loca­tions, sud­den influ­ences such as mate­r­i­al short­ages or rush orders and grow­ing cost pres­sure in pro­duc­tion. Against this back­ground, an effi­cient pro­duc­tion plan­ning and sched­ul­ing process that con­sid­ers the many com­plex inter­de­pen­den­cies has become more crit­i­cal than ever. Intel­li­gent data ana­lyt­ics based on arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence and machine learn­ing can help you mas­ter the increas­ing amount and com­plex­i­ty of data and ensure your company’s long-term com­pet­i­tive­ness and eco­nom­ic suc­cess.

Our software solution s.FOX

Our pro­duc­tion plan­ning solu­tion s.FOX has been specif­i­cal­ly designed to mas­ter the com­plex­i­ty of the mod­ern man­u­fac­tur­ing indus­try using data sci­ence. Our holis­tic approach and meth­ods help our cus­tomers opti­mise their pro­duc­tion process­es, reduce costs and increase pro­duc­tiv­i­ty. s.FOX ensures intel­li­gent sequenc­ing of jobs and pro­duc­tion orders and uses arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence to sup­port com­plex pro­duc­tion plan­ning and sched­ul­ing. What used to take hours of man­u­al plan­ning in spread­sheets is now done with­in in min­utes. The soft­ware can be used across var­i­ous indus­tries and guar­an­tees reli­able plan­ning of com­plex Indus­try 4.0 process­es even in the long term. This per­mits a more effi­cient cost reduc­tion, opti­mal use of resources and improved com­pet­i­tive­ness. As a real alter­na­tive to man­u­al pro­duc­tion plan­ning, s.FOX helps you as a man­u­fac­tur­ing com­pa­ny to face the future with con­fi­dence.

Spurensucher kommen aus dem Datenwald.
s.core

The algorithm library of s.FOX

Using data sci­ence, rel­e­vant influ­enc­ing vari­ables called con­straints are iden­ti­fied from data sources such as his­tor­i­cal pro­duc­tion data and mas­ter data. But they are also iden­ti­fied in direct dia­logue with plan­ners. What’s unique is the com­bi­na­tion of AI-based esti­ma­tors for order-spe­cif­ic process para­me­ters — also called ‘fea­ture impor­tance’ (e.g. set­up times) — and pow­er­ful opti­mis­ers to take into account indi­vid­ual con­di­tions — the ‘con­straint sat­is­fac­tion prob­lem’ (e.g. mate­r­i­al or plant avail­abil­i­ty). This is how we have suc­cess­ful­ly linked machine learn­ing with pow­er­ful opti­mi­sa­tion algo­rithms. The com­bi­na­tion of AI and these very algo­rithms opens up new pos­si­bil­i­ties for automa­tion and dig­i­tal­i­sa­tion of pro­duc­tion process­es.

s.FOX auf einem Bildschirm im Wald
Almost the same, but dif­fer­ent

The difference between s.FOX and FOX

Diese zwei fast gle­ich­nami­gen Soft­warelö­sun­gen unter­schei­den sich lediglich in der Möglichkeit, eine intel­li­gente Pro­duk­tion­s­pla­nung mit oder ohne SAP zu erstellen:


s.FOX


(stand­alone. Facto­ry Opti­miza­tion EXcel­lence):

“Stand­alone” empha­sizes the unique sell­ing point of intel­li­gent pro­duc­tion process plan­ning out­side or with­out an SAP con­nec­tion. In short: s.FOX is for all cus­tomers who want to work with an indi­vid­ual con­nec­tion to oth­er ERP sys­tems or as an intro­duc­tion to the GIB suite and is avail­able via ifm stat­math gmbh.


FOX


(Facto­ry Opti­miza­tion EXcel­lence):  

Intel­li­gent pro­duc­tion process plan­ning in SAP and avail­able via ifm busi­ness solu­tions.

More infor­ma­tion
Be smart like FOX! Two foxes on blue background

Factors and dependencies in production planning

s.FOX takes into account var­i­ous fac­tors and depen­den­cies in pro­duc­tion plan­ning:

  1. mate­r­i­al avail­abil­i­ty
  2. machine capa­bil­i­ty and avail­abil­i­ty
  3. pro­duc­tion steps and set­up times
  4. order data
  5. work plans
  6. order pri­or­i­sa­tion
  7. machine main­te­nance and planned main­te­nance inter­vals
  8. shift schedules/staff avail­abil­i­ty
  9. fur­ther cus­tomer-spe­cif­ic restric­tions
At a glance

The benefits of s.FOX

  1. opti­mal order plan­ning, e.g. to ensure eco­nom­ic util­i­sa­tion of pro­duc­tion lines, improve­ment of deliv­ery per­for­mance and min­imi­sa­tion of set­up times
  2. pri­ori­tise orders with max­i­mum flex­i­bil­i­ty
  3. for­ward and back­ward sched­ul­ing pos­si­ble
  4. assess the influ­ence of rush orders
  5. cre­ate pro­duc­tion plans for mul­ti­ple loca­tions with dif­fer­ent IT infra­struc­tures
  6. sim­ple plan­ning export
  7. easy man­age­ment of inter­faces to third-par­ty sys­tems
  8. flex­i­ble, intu­itive and clear­ly struc­tured web appli­ca­tion
  9. high trans­paren­cy and trace­abil­i­ty
  10. sim­ple soft­ware imple­men­ta­tion
  11. con­sis­tent qual­i­ty lev­el of plan­ning (even if plan­ner is absent)

The 5‑step wizard

The sim­ple 5‑step wiz­ard ensures intu­itive use and clear visu­al­i­sa­tion:

STEP 1:

In the first step, select a suit­able sched­ul­ing strat­e­gy from the drop-down menu which reflects the desired plan­ning peri­od as well as your indi­vid­ual pro­duc­tion process para­me­ters.

 

STEP 2:

In the sec­ond step, select the machines for which you want to cre­ate a plan.

 

STEP 3:

In the third step, select the orders to be planned.

 

STEP 4:

In the fourth step, an opti­mal plan is pre­sent­ed in an easy-to-fol­low Gantt chart. Colours, tooltips and key fig­ures can be con­fig­ured indi­vid­u­al­ly.

 

STEP 5:

In the final step, your cus­tom plan is trans­ferred to your sys­tem (e.g. ERP or PPS).

Ausschnitt von Füßen mit Wanderschuhen, die durch die Natur laufen.
How it works

s.FOX in a nutshell

Data:

  • order data
  • pro­duc­tion data
  • shift sched­ules
  • mate­r­i­al avail­abli­ty
  • rela­tion­ship data
  • work plans
  • pro­duc­tion process
  • ERP data (e.g. SAP)

Our solution for complex production planning

  • pro­duc­tion plan­ning with­in min­utes, in near real-time and for mul­ti­ple loca­tions with dif­fer­ent infra­struc­tures
  • opti­mal clus­ter­ing of orders to ensure eco­nom­ic util­i­sa­tion of pro­duc­tion lines
  • flex­i­ble pri­ori­ti­sa­tion of orders
  • ad hoc resched­ul­ing pos­si­ble
  • mea­sure­ment of cru­cial KPIs such as set­up times etc.
  • sce­nario sim­u­la­tion pos­si­bil­i­ties

Result:

  • intel­li­gent and reli­able pro­duc­tion plan­ning
  • ready-made solu­tion and user-defined pro­gram­ming inter­face (API) for export to oth­er sys­tems, includ­ing SAP
  • con­sis­tent qual­i­ty lev­el of plan­ning (even if plan­ner is absent)


FAQ about s.FOX

Deploy­ment and Inte­gra­tion

Yes, this is freely selec­table.

Yes.

A stan­dard pool of objec­tives is avail­able (e.g., deliv­ery reli­a­bil­i­ty, set­up effi­cien­cy, work­sta­tion uti­liza­tion). This can be extend­ed upon request.

Func­tions and Mas­ter Data

With the help of s.FOX, well-func­tion­ing pro­duc­tion plans can be cre­at­ed in a short amount of time.

  • AI-sup­port­ed pro­duc­tion plan­ning accord­ing to defined opti­miza­tion objec­tives
  • Man­age­ment of plan­ning-rel­e­vant mas­ter data includ­ing plau­si­bil­i­ty checks
  • Live plan dis­play with con­tin­u­ous updates in case of dis­rup­tions
  • Com­pli­ance with restric­tions (e.g., capac­i­ties, mate­r­i­al)

s.FOX takes plan­ning to a whole new lev­el: All par­ties involved always work with the same up-to-date data, ensur­ing data con­sis­ten­cy and qual­i­ty. Con­flict­ing Excel files and con­fus­ing pro­lif­er­a­tion are a thing of the past, as plau­si­bil­i­ty checks are inte­grat­ed direct­ly into the sys­tem. The use of AI and opti­miza­tion algo­rithms achieves auto­mat­ed and effi­cient pro­duc­tion plan­ning results. This sig­nif­i­cant­ly reduces the dai­ly plan­ning effort and saves a con­sid­er­able amount of time. In the long term, com­pa­nies also ben­e­fit from a sus­tain­able improve­ment in their KPIs, as process­es are con­tin­u­ous­ly opti­mized and deci­sions are sup­port­ed by data.

Yes. s.FOX can be indi­vid­u­al­ly adapt­ed to your process­es.

  • Work­sta­tions includ­ing effi­cien­cies
  • Orders includ­ing dead­lines
  • Mate­ri­als and work sched­ules
  • Oper­at­ing cal­en­dar (avail­abil­i­ties)
  • Setups 

IT and Oper­a­tions

Require­ments are cus­tomer-spe­cif­ic. Min­i­mum for the opti­miz­er:

  • 8 vCPU
  • 32 GB RAM
  • 32 GB stor­age

Flex­i­ble scal­ing is pos­si­ble.

The opti­miz­er runs direct­ly at the cus­tomer. Data is not trans­ferred to ifm (except in demo sce­nar­ios).

All rel­e­vant plan­ning results (start/end times, work­sta­tion assign­ments). Cur­rent data can be export­ed via stan­dard inter­faces.

Project Flow and Sup­port

  • Demo access with cus­tomer data
  • Option­al pre-project
  • Imple­men­ta­tion in the customer’s infra­struc­ture

Imple­men­ta­tion usu­al­ly takes about six months, depend­ing on cus­tomiza­tion and inter­face require­ments

All com­pa­nies that want to auto­mate their pro­duc­tion plan­ning and take it to the next lev­el.

  • Stan­dard sup­port: Mon–Fri, 08:00–16:30 (CET), except on pub­lic hol­i­days in NRW and from Dec 24–31
  • Exten­sions avail­able upon request

About every three months.

  • Via stan­dard inter­faces (HTTP, REST, JSON)
  • Man­u­al entry in the sys­tem

s.FOX pro­vides KPIs on plan­ning results so that devel­op­ments can be mea­sured over time.

Dur­ing imple­men­ta­tion: a ded­i­cat­ed project man­ag­er + deputy.
In live oper­a­tion: sup­port team.

  • Serv­er
  • Time for work­shops and tests
  • Open­ness to a data-dri­ven approach

Yes. Train­ings are held before go-live, fol­lowed by an inten­sive sup­port phase.

Yes. For exam­ple:

  • Pilot projects in select­ed areas
  • Shad­ow plan­ning in the new sys­tem until full accep­tance
Your con­tact to ifm stat­math
Do you have ques­tions?

Do you have ques­tions about our prod­ucts? Con­tact us to book an appoint­ment. Our team will be hap­py to advise you per­son­al­ly or via email.

+49 (0)271 – 319 28 00 1 statmath@ifm.com
statmath Mitarbeiter Daniel
Always up to date
Social Media

Don’t want to miss any news and updates? Are you also inter­est­ed in what the track­ers have been up to again and what adven­tures they have had?

Then it’s time to fol­low us:

Martin Rothenpieler von Vetter
The find­ings from s.FOX have enabled us to iden­ti­fy opti­mi­sa­tion poten­tial and thus realise sig­nif­i­cant sav­ings in mate­r­i­al costs. The com­mit­ment of the experts at ifm stat­math­gmbh, who per­sis­tent­ly searched for a sat­is­fac­to­ry solu­tion for us until all our require­ments were ful­ly met, is par­tic­u­lar­ly com­mend­able.
Mar­tin Rothen­piel­er
Mechan­i­cal engi­neer­ing tech­ni­cian, Mate­ri­als engi­neer­ing
Vet­ter Indus­trie GmbH
Vetter Logo