CAT Squared, Conway, Ark., formed a new partnership with AIMMS, a Bellevue, Wash.-based vendor of prescriptive analytics software, and UniSoma, a Brazil-based provider of advanced planning solutions. The partnership will enable AIMMS, UniSoma and CAT Squared to provision prescriptive analytics applications for food processors.

CAT Squared customers include enterprises in beef, pork, chicken, turkey, seafood and produce processing and handling. These companies are already collecting real-time data from the plant floor, and are equipped with real-time reporting for production and inventory and farm-to-fork traceability.

AIMMS helps organizations make better decisions through modeling, optimization and data visualization. With AIMMS technology, customers can easily adjust and optimize their strategy and operations by creating apps that support their people.

The initial solution developed through this new partnership will be a tactical planning application for customers that use CAT Squared solutions to monitor and manage data. The AIMMS PRO platform and CAT Squared’s software suite will be tightly integrated to empower customers with a better planning tool. Supported by UniSoma’s knowledge in optimization models and in leveraging existing data, these companies will be better equipped to overcome barriers in traditional MRP systems by representing the dissembling process characteristics of the business and ensuring that planning decisions have a substantial positive effect on their margin.

“CAT Squared’s manufacturing execution systems (MES) already provide plant management with real-time data, empowering them to drive continuous improvement in their operations,” says Vernon Smith, chief executive officer of CAT Squared. “We have helped our customers drive considerable ROI in a very short period of time through improvements in yields and efficiencies, reduction of downtime and improvements in traceability and recall capabilities. Our solutions provide excellent control over the shop floor data, but the missing piece of the puzzle has always been the ability to manage and optimize the complex process of production planning and scheduling. By integrating the power of CAT Squared’s MES solution with Unisoma’s experience delivering planning and optimization solutions for the food industry and utilizing the AIMMS prescriptive analytics capabilities, we will be able to model the complex processes within the manufacturing facility and generate an optimized production schedule, highlighting bottlenecks and surpluses and maximizing profit. This powerful tool will allow our customers to not only optimize their production scheduling and the utilization of their production facilities, but also react in real time to changes in both supply and demand.”

“This alliance of solutions empowers food industry players to make better and more consistent business decisions by taking the next step in analytics to transform real-time data into optimized planning recommendations. The outcomes are impressive in terms of competitive advantage and financial results,” adds Luis Pinto, UniSoma’s partner.

“We are excited about this alliance,” says Gertjan de Lange, senior vice president connecting business and optimization for AIMMS. “Through our joined strengths in software, consulting and solution delivery, we are confident that we can deliver a suite of prescriptive analytics apps for CAT Squared customers that will drastically improve their business.”