A plan that is outdated before it runs
Data flow is slow and every change requires redoing the plan manually. By the time the new version is out, reality has changed again.
Solutions · Planning Digital Twin
Executable plans and sequencing that adapt to the reality of your operation
A machine stops, demand shifts, a ship is late, and the week's plan stops being valid. The Planning Digital Twin recalculates the best plan considering your plant's physical constraints and your business goals, compares scenarios in minutes, and shows the trade-off of each decision before it is made.
Why traditional planning cannot keep up with the operation
Spreadsheets and off-the-shelf tools were built for a stable world. In real industry, the plan must reconcile physical constraints, commercial targets, and unexpected events at the same time, and redoing it by hand takes hours the operation does not have.
Generic optimization
Standard tools optimize a fixed objective and ignore the rules of your strategy: customer priority, margin per product, quality constraints.
Few scenarios, no risk measured
One or two scenarios are compared, with no risk metric. The choice between producing more or delaying less is made in the dark.
Horizons that do not talk to each other
S&OP sets a volume, PCP finds out it does not fit, and the operation absorbs the difference. Each area plans with its own assumptions.
What is the Planning Digital Twin
The Planning Digital Twin is the digital replica of your operation, with your business rules built in. It simulates thousands of scenarios, measures the risk of each one, and recalculates the plan on its own when reality changes, from real time to the business plan.
Discuss your applicationFrom real time to the business plan, in a single Digital Twin
The Planning Digital Twin is modular and tailor-made. Each module covers a decision horizon, and all of them exchange information in both directions: what S&OP decides reaches PCP, and what happens on the shop floor updates S&OP. Risk analysis runs across every horizon.
Planning Digital Twin
Integrated modules with full-duplex communication
- Operations optimizationReal time
What is the best action right now, given what is happening in the plant?
- Control TowerSame day
Will today's plan be met? Where to intervene?
- PCP – Production Planning and Control3 to 7 days
What is the best production sequence for the week?
- S&OE – Sales and Operations Execution1 week to 10 months
How to execute the tactical plan in the face of changes in demand and capacity?
- S&OP – Sales and Operations Planning1 week to 10 months
How much to sell, produce, and stock to balance market and capacity?
- BudgetAnnual
What volume and mix are feasible for the year, given scheduled stoppages?
- Business planMulti-year
Which investments and long-term scenarios support the strategy?
Risk analysis
Lower uncertaintyHigher uncertainty and risk
How the Planning Digital Twin arrives at the best plan
The cycle runs continuously and feeds back on every decision.
Continuouscycle
- Collects and controls operational dataIntegration with ERP, MES, APS, TMS, and WMS, with real-time monitoring of each integration's status.
- Represents the operation in the Digital TwinProcesses, assets, routes, and constraints modeled as they actually work, not as an average.
- Generates alerts and KPI indicesThe twin identifies deviations, errors, and risks and translates the state of the operation into indicators.
- Optimizes with custom algorithmsMulti-objective optimization calibrated by the business strategy: produce more, delay less, spend less, or the right balance among them.
- Supports the decision and returns the plan to the operationThe planner compares scenarios, chooses, and publishes. The executed result returns to the twin and the cycle starts again.
What changes in your planning
Each feature answers a decision that planning makes every day.
Optimized sequencing
In what order should we produce to lose less?
Sequences orders and heats considering physical and business constraints: changeover times, product compatibility, each machine's capacity, and delivery dates. Gantt view, ready to publish.
Scenario comparator
Produce more or delay less?
Compare the base scenario and scenarios optimized for different objectives side by side. See, in tons and in orders, how much each choice gains and how much it costs.
Bottleneck detection
What keeps demand from being met?
Shows, from demand to scheduled volume, where volume is lost and why, for each product, route, and resource.
Risk analysis by planned mix
What are the chances of meeting this plan?
Production probability curves calculated from each SKU's historical behavior. Define the acceptable level of risk before making commitments.
Adaptive replanning
What if something changes right now?
When a machine stops or demand changes, the twin recalculates the plan in an integrated way across all affected horizons.
Capacity and maintenance planning
When can we stop without losing production?
Optimizes the allocation of scheduled stoppages against commercial commitments, from the current month to the annual budget.
Simulation of thousands of scenarios
What happens if…?
Test demand, capacity, and logistics assumptions at scale and anticipate problems before they reach the operation.
Integration monitoring
Is the plan's data reliable?
Real-time status of each integration (APS, MES, ERP, SAP, WMS, TMS), so that no plan is made on outdated data.
Planning Digital Twin vs. off-the-shelf tools
Standard tools deliver a plan. The twin delivers the best plan for your operation and shows what you are trading off by choosing it.
| Dimension | Off-the-shelf tools | Planning Digital Twin |
|---|---|---|
| Physical representation | Basic simulation, with preconfigured data | Advanced simulation of thousands of complex scenarios |
| Strategic alignment | Standard optimization, without your strategy's requirements | Custom optimization, aligned with business goals |
| Plan updates | Slow data flow and a plan that is hard to redo | Adaptive replanning, integrated across the whole chain |
| Accuracy | Lower accuracy in predictive actions | High accuracy, with data and modeling specific to the operation |
| Risk | Few scenarios, no risk metrics | Multiple scenarios, with risk measurement and reduction |
| Visibility | No real-time view | Autonomous real-time analyses, with alerts and insights |
| Trade-offs | Little customization | Complete view of trade-offs, with a high level of customization |
Proven results in real operations
The numbers below come from projects in production, several of them documented in technical papers presented at AISTech and ABM Week.
Integrated steel shop (steel mill)
Challenge
Sequence more than 1,500 orders across converters, ladle metallurgy, and continuous casting
Result
+1 day of production per month with no infrastructure investment; 4.5 million t/year of liquid steel optimized
Real-time resequencing (steel shop)
Challenge
Recover the plan after a deviation in the shift
Result
Estimated shift loss reduced from 108 t to 32 t (76 t avoided) and 24 fewer minutes of downtime
Torpedo cars (integrated mill)
Challenge
Avoid pig iron dumping due to excessive waiting
Result
Dumped cars reduced from 61 to 29 in a 30-day scenario; 48 h visibility of every movement
Slab yard and shipping
Challenge
Form loads with the fewest movements
Result
Maximum movements per load from 15 to 6, about 60% fewer movements overall
Section rolling (minimill)
Challenge
Sequence campaigns respecting roll and gauge changes
Result
13.5% fewer stand changes and 21.3% production time saved, on average
Section rolling (integrated mill)
Challenge
Get the twin's plan followed in practice
Result
80.5% adherence of the operation to the Digital Twin's plan
Digital S&OP (rail and port logistics)
Challenge
Integrate rail, terminal, and port planning
Result
Multimodal planning integrated in a single platform
Modular deployment, with value from the first phases
Deployment starts from Gemminus, Enacom's proprietary Digital Twin platform, and is customized to the constraints and strategy of your operation. Because it is modular, we start with the horizon of greatest impact and expand to the others as the first results appear.
Blueprint
We map processes, constraints, systems, and the horizon where planning loses the most value.
Customization
Integration with your systems, modeling of the operation, and calibration of the optimization algorithms for your objectives.
Assisted operation
Our team accompanies planners in daily use until the solution becomes part of the routine.
Expansion
New modules and horizons, from PCP to S&OP and the budget.
Who the Planning Digital Twin is for
For operations where the plan involves many constraints at once and every hour of production or every late ton weighs on the result. The solution already operates in integrated steel mills and minimills and in rail and port logistics chains.
SteelMiningLogistics and Supply ChainEnergy & UtilitiesProcess industry
Who uses it day to day
Industrial and supply chain leadership
Scenarios with clear trade-offs to decide volume, mix, and investments.
PCP and production scheduling
Sequences optimized in minutes and fast replanning when the unexpected happens.
S&OP and tactical planning
A plan that fits the real capacity of the operation.
Sales
Delivery and volume commitments with known risk.
Decisions this topic supports
See the decision pages linked to this content.
Increase productivityReduce costsImprove operationsUnderstand cost and marginRisk and capacity
Frequently asked questions about the Planning Digital Twin
What is a planning Digital Twin?
It is a digital replica of the operation that combines physical assets, constraints, and business strategy to generate optimized plans. It simulates scenarios, measures risk, and automatically recalculates the plan when the operation changes.
What is the difference between an APS and the Planning Digital Twin?
A traditional APS applies standard optimization logic over preconfigured data; the Planning Digital Twin models your operation's specific constraints and optimizes for your business objectives. It also integrates several horizons, from real time to the multi-year plan, and measures the risk of each scenario.
Which planning horizons does the solution cover?
From real time to multi-year: operations optimization, Control Tower, PCP (3 to 7 days), S&OE and S&OP (1 week to 10 months), annual budget, and business plan. The modules can be contracted separately and exchange information with each other.
How does the twin optimize production sequencing?
It uses custom optimization algorithms that consider physical constraints, such as equipment capacity and changeover times, and business constraints, such as deadlines and customer priorities. In a steel shop, the solution sequences more than 1,500 orders in about an hour.
What is a trade-off in planning and how does the twin help decide?
A trade-off is the exchange between conflicting objectives, such as producing more or delaying fewer orders. The scenario comparator shows side by side how much each alternative gains and loses, in tons and in orders, so the decision is explicit.
What results has the Planning Digital Twin already delivered?
In steel, +1 day of production per month with no infrastructure investment and about 60% fewer yard movements. In section rolling, 21.3% production time saved on average.
Which systems does the solution integrate with?
With ERP, MES, APS, TMS, WMS, and SAP, among others. The status of each integration is monitored in real time.
Does the solution replace my current APS or ERP?
Not necessarily. The twin integrates with existing systems and adds the layer of modeling, optimization, and scenario analysis that they lack.
How does the contracting model work?
Setup + subscription. The subscription covers licensing, support, training, version updates, and customization services.
Talk to your plan, learn from your history
With the Digital Twin Tutor, the planner asks the twin in natural language, using generative AI: “what happens to delays if we prioritize customer X?”. The Tutor answers based on the twin's own data and models, with no need to browse dashboards.
- Integrated with the operation's Digital Twins
- Quick answers to “what if” scenarios
- Simple interface, also accessible on mobile
Discover how much your plan is leaving on the table
In a conversation with our specialists, we map your constraints and the horizon where the twin delivers the fastest return.
You leave with a clear path to the first module.