The paper summarizes the results of research on the modeling and implementation of advanced planning and scheduling (APS) systems done in recent twenty years. It discusses the concept of APS system – how it is thought of today – and highlights the modeling and implementation challenges with which the developers of such systems should cope. Some from these challenges were identified as a result of the study of scientific literature, others – through an in-depth analysis of the experience gained during the development of real-world APS system – a Production Efficiency Navigator (PEN system). The paper contributes to APS systems theory by proposing the concept of an ensemble of collaborating algorithms.