ILOG announced yesterday that ILOG Plant PowerOps 3.0, the latest version of ILOG's integrated planning and scheduling solution is available.

The new solution increases production planners' ability to generate feasible and optimal plans and better control demand and manufacturing variability through industry-first features like a material rebalancing engine and improved rescheduling capabilities.

The new ILOG Plant PowerOps (PPO) also features multidimensional product and time-aggregation capabilities that enable planners to better analyze and manage complex manufacturing environments that requires the consideration of multiple product characteristics. ILOG PPO is now part of the ILOG LogicTools Supply Chain Applications Suite and is supported by a global team of manufacturing and supply chain professionals.

Today's competitive business dynamics force manufacturing companies to improve production efficiency and service levels, increase flexibility, accept smaller order sizes, and introduce new products at faster rates than ever before.

Most advanced planning and scheduling (APS) software packages on the market, whether part of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) or Supply Chain Management (SCM) systems or standalone, can only manage simple production processes. The limitations in their ability to address the key manufacturing constraints generate unrealistic schedules, high manufacturing costs and poor inventory coverage and service levels.

Leveraging investments in existing ERP, SCM and/or Manufacturing Execution systems (MES), ILOG PPO targets Food and Beverage, Pharmaceuticals and Chemicals and extends the value of existing IT investments by providing dramatic improvements in production efficiency and flexibility without an expensive system replacement project.