Partner of the month: Kudos Solutions – Delivering advanced planning expertise with Opcenter APS

By Christian Wendt

This month, we’re pleased to feature Kudos Solutions as our Partner of the Month. Based in the UK, Kudos Solutions has built a strong reputation helping manufacturers improve production efficiency, visibility and decision-making through advanced planning and scheduling.

With more than three decades of experience in manufacturing planning and scheduling, Kudos Solutions has been a long-standing provider of Siemens Opcenter Advanced Planning and Scheduling (APS) – formerly Preactor APS – and continues to support manufacturers across multiple industries in optimizing their production processes.

We spoke with Jeff Johnson from Kudos Solutions to learn more about their experience with Opcenter APS, their implementation philosophy and how they help manufacturers transform production planning.

1. Could you tell us about your company and your experience working with Opcenter APS?

Jeff: Kudos Solutions is a UK-based specialist in advanced planning and scheduling software for manufacturers, with over 30 years of experience delivering solutions that improve production efficiency and visibility.

We are a Siemens Smart Expert Partner and a long-standing provider of Opcenter APS. Our team of more than 25 specialists focuses exclusively on the implementation, configuration and support of Opcenter Planning and Scheduling solutions.

Over the years, we have delivered successful implementations across a range of manufacturing sectors, particularly Food & Beverage and FMCG. We have worked with companies such as Bakkavor, Greencore, Samworth Brothers, 2 Sisters and ABF, helping them improve planning processes and production performance.

2. What’s your approach to implementing Opcenter APS for clients and what makes it unique?

Jeff: Our approach to implementing Opcenter APS is centred on delivering value quickly while ensuring the solution genuinely reflects how the business operates.

We start by working closely with the client to understand their production environment, operational constraints and planning challenges. From there, we configure the system to mirror the real-world processes on the shop floor so that the scheduling logic supports how the operation actually runs.

Our implementation style is both collaborative and agile. Rather than long, drawn-out deployments, we focus on rapid configuration, regular feedback and iterative improvements. This approach allows planners and the wider business to start seeing value early and achieve a quicker return on investment.

What makes our approach unique is the combination of deep manufacturing expertise and a highly technical team, bringing together more than 100 years of combined experience in planning and scheduling within the manufacturing sector.

Ultimately, our goal is to provide businesses with clear visibility, better decision-making and a scheduling solution that evolves alongside their operations and scales as they grow.

3. Can you share a specific customer success story where Opcenter APS solved a significant challenge?

Jeff: One example that highlights the value of Opcenter APS is our work with Springfarm Architectural Mouldings, a leading manufacturer of medium-density fiberboard (MDF) moldings that supplies high-quality products to the United Kingdom, Ireland and beyond.

The Challenge: Springfarm Architectural Mouldings serves a customer base where approximately 80% are located on the UK mainland, meaning the company must operate with speed and efficiency when shipping products. As the business expanded, production became increasingly complex. Their existing system became unstable and occasionally crashed, creating challenges for production planning and scheduling.

Our Solution: Springfarm needed a planning tool capable of responding to real-world production scenarios, including unexpected machine downtime and planned maintenance. They also required greater flexibility for schedulers to intervene manually when necessary. Opcenter APS provided the ability to manage these complexities while giving planners better control over the scheduling process.

Key Benefits: The implementation delivered measurable improvements across the operation:

15% increase in throughput
More than 75% automated scheduling
Greater visibility across production processes
5% reduction in setup times
Reduced waste by optimizing how material cuts are planned

Fore more details read the case study “Molding company uses Opcenter APS to significantly improve system reliability and production”.

As the team at Springfarm summarized:

We could not schedule the factory without Opcenter APS. It understands each process and the constraints of each machine and puts each job on the planning board in the most efficient order.

4. What trends are you seeing in manufacturing planning and scheduling, and how does Opcenter APS address them?

Jeff: We are seeing several important trends shaping the future of manufacturing planning and scheduling.

Moving beyond spreadsheets to digital planning: Many manufacturers still rely on spreadsheets or basic ERP planning tools. However, these systems struggle to handle the complexity of modern manufacturing environments where multiple constraints must be balanced simultaneously. Manufacturers are therefore moving toward advanced planning and scheduling platforms that model real production constraints such as machine capacity, materials, labour availability and changeover times. Opcenter APS supports this shift by creating finite-capacity schedules based on real operational constraints and providing visual scheduling tools such as Gantt charts so planners can clearly see bottlenecks and dependencies.

Demand volatility and shorter lead times: Manufacturers today face constant demand fluctuations alongside increasing customer expectations for faster delivery. Production plans need to be flexible and responsive so that schedules can quickly adapt when orders change or disruptions occur. Opcenter APS helps address this by enabling rapid what-if scenario analysis, automatically balancing demand with available capacity to generate achievable schedules and support faster decision-making.

Greater focus on data-driven decision making: Manufacturing leaders increasingly want planning decisions based on reliable data rather than intuition alone. Opcenter APS helps support this by collecting and analysing production data to provide insight into resource utilisation, capacity constraints and operational performance, allowing planners to compare different scheduling scenarios before committing to a plan.

End-to-end visibility across the production process: Modern manufacturing requires visibility across the entire production lifecycle – from forecasting through to detailed shop-floor sequencing. Opcenter APS integrates with ERP and MES systems, synchronizing orders, materials and resources while providing a single view of production capacity and constraints across planning horizons.

Improving efficiency and reducing waste: With rising operational costs and increasing sustainability expectations, manufacturers are under pressure to improve efficiency. By optimizing machine utilisation and production sequencing, Opcenter APS helps reduce work-in-progress, minimize inventory levels and improve on-time delivery performance.

5. What advice would you give to manufacturers considering implementation of advanced planning and scheduling solutions?

Jeff: For manufacturers considering Opcenter APS, several principles can help ensure a successful implementation.

Start with the problem, not the software: Organizations should first identify the operational challenge they want to solve – such as reducing late orders, increasing throughput, improving planner productivity or managing complex constraints. A good starting question is: “Where does our current planning process break down?“

Understand your planning complexity: Opcenter APS delivers the most value in environments where planning is too complex for spreadsheets or traditional ERP tools. Typical indicators include multiple constraints, frequent schedule changes, high product mix, changeover-heavy production or demand volatility.

Focus on data quality early: Opcenter APS does not require perfect data, but it does require reliable core information. Key areas to review include bills of materials, routings, machine capacities, changeover rules and lead times. Many successful projects begin with a data review phase to ensure the planning model reflects how the factory actually operates.

Involve planners from day one: Planners often hold critical operational knowledge that isn’t documented anywhere – from hidden constraints to practical workarounds. Engaging them early in the project helps ensure the system reflects real-world operations and improves long-term adoption.

Think in phases, not a big-bang implementation: The most effective Opcenter APS projects typically follow a phased approach:

Visibility and schedule modelling
Finite capacity planning
Scenario planning and optimisation
Integration with broader supply chain processes

This allows companies to deliver value quickly while building confidence in the system.

Measure success with operational metrics: Opcenter APS projects should always be linked to measurable outcomes such as improvements in on-time delivery, increased throughput, reduced inventory, higher planner productivity and more stable production schedules.

About Kudos Solutions

Kudos Solutions is a UK-based specialist in advanced planning and scheduling for manufacturers and a Siemens Smart Expert Partner. With more than 30 years of experience and a team dedicated to Opcenter Planning and Scheduling, the company helps manufacturers improve visibility, efficiency, and decision-making across their production operations.

For more information:

Company: Kudos Solutions
Website: https://www.kudossolutions.co.uk/
Contact: Jeff Johnson – jeff.johnson@kudossolutions.co.uk
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/kudos-solutions/
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