Solutions for SMEs

The constant change in the manufacturing industry brings new challenges that need to be mastered to ensure stable growth. An intelligent software solution for production planning in particular can help to overcome these challenges through genuine mathematical optimisation:

• Reduced set-up costs due to a greater number of variants and smaller batch sizes
• Short delivery times and high adherence to delivery dates without building up unnecessary inventories
• High cost pressure due to international competition and increased energy costs

Detailed planning in production is about optimising production orders in a customer-oriented manner.

Often, rough planning does not take into account all the important aspects, such as set-up sequences and other production-related challenges. This is where detailed planning comes into play: As part of detailed planning, the production manager or work scheduling department allocates the production orders directly to the desired machines. This makes it possible to specifically determine the chronological sequence of orders on bottleneck machines.

The classic processes of detailed planning include

• Moving orders from one machine to an alternative machine.
• Adjusting the sequence of orders on a machine.
• Splitting orders into smaller units.
• Merging orders into a larger order.

Detailed planning enables production processes to be organised more efficiently and customer requirements to be optimally fulfilled.

We offer solutions specifically for detailed production planning that can be customised to your individual needs. This is because not only do the production systems (workshop production, flow production, etc.) differ greatly in different industries, but also the objectives and requirements for rough and detailed planning.

Customised optimisation models

Special planning problems can often only be solved using special optimisation models. Take advantage of our consultants’ many years of expertise in the field of production planning and business intelligence to make your company more competitive with customised solutions using mathematical or heuristic optimisation methods. Even extremely complex planning problems can be solved with the right toolbox and the combination of comprehensive knowledge of the production structure (you) and optimisation expertise (us).

Some examples of successfully implemented optimisation projects are:

• Supply chain optimisation for a large German car manufacturer
• Cutting optimisation to maximise profits or minimise waste in the wood and packaging industry
• Storage location optimisation and tugger train optimisation to improve the utilisation of storage and transport capacities
• Production sequence optimisation for a food manufacturer for multi-stage production processes, taking into account restrictions such as allergens