Supply chain management: use systems productively – plan production cleverly – optimize processes

How economical is the use of your manufacturing, filling and packaging systems? Modern systems are investment-intensive and tie up a lot of capital. They should therefore be used as effectively as possible!

At the same time, quality requirements for the product must be met - and the systems must be optimally cared for and maintained in order to maintain the longest possible service life and high output.

In order to keep the proportion of unproductive plant time as low as possible, production planning – in addition to its task of covering primary requirements – should be equipped with intelligence for efficient plant use.

Production processes can be assessed and improved in their efficiency through monitoring.

This significantly increases the company's added value and increases the contribution margins.

Bavaria Consulting in Munich operates supply chain optimization for FMCG companies, analyzes processes and creates concepts for operationally complex situations and implements them with the customer.

Capacity bottlenecks are triggers to think about optimizing or expanding the plant park. Modern systems are expensive, replacement purchases without simultaneous performance increases or quality improvements often do not justify an investment from an economic point of view. It is therefore worth taking a closer look at the existing processes. Can they be made faster without jeopardizing asset value or product quality? Is it possible to shorten unproductive system times and thus achieve more output with the existing systems? In many cases the answer is yes!

Good efficiency improvement programs aim to increase efficiencies and capacities by more than 20% without major investment. For this purpose, Bavaria Consulting uses proven analytical methods as well as the simulation of material flows and material inventories.

The basis is always a well-functioning sales and operations planning (Sales & Operations Planning S&OP).

The sales of individual articles can fluctuate significantly depending on the season and can only be forecast to a limited extent. Durabilities, trade requirements and storage capacities specify the maximum ranges that the products can be manufactured with.

It is checked whether the sales planning has its finger on the pulse of the sales activities and whether the primary requirements are communicated to procurement and production with sufficient frequency, speed and accuracy. How much does my sales change per planning period? Which influences influence these changes? How do I have to react to these changes in procurement planning? From this, an optimal communication model is developed between the sales organization and supply chain management.

Most FMCG companies are series manufacturers and produce their products "made-to-stock", i.e. procure them for an optimized inventory that guarantees high availability for sale.

Within the manufactured product portfolio, the articles differ both in their required quantities and in their customer and production-specific properties, as well as from an economic point of view.

Optimal production and plant allocation planning guarantees high production efficiency and sufficient capacity.

Hygiene requirements and variety of formats usually result in relatively complex and labour-intensive and time-consuming washing and changing processes. These changes themselves are usually mandatory. However, their frequency and duration can often be reduced.

The system utilization planning of a series manufacturer is usually based on a roughly recurring production sequence. In order to standardize this, the optimal production sequence that causes the least amount of changeover time must first be determined. An example - optimization according to the highest output and the shortest planned downtime:

The planning wheel developed by Bavaria Consulting maps the system allocation planning as a recurring production sequence.
Each planning period thus forms a wheel in which the production blocks are carried out at their optimum point.

The product sequence remains the same within the recurring planning period (e.g. a calendar week). Whether and how long a production block takes place is decided on the basis of the forecast requirements. Strong items (tonnage, total DB, A items) are produced frequently and with long runs. Weaker items are produced less frequently and in smaller batches. The production frequency of an item results from the possible storage time and available storage volume. The changes can be better standardized.

The planning wheel can be set up as a simulation model.

The more complex the plant structure and the production portfolio per plant, the more it is worth automating part of the allocation planning. The product sequence is recorded as a restriction in a simulation model, and the requirements per plan period set can be maintained as variables.

Deeper into detail: Analyzing processes - recognizing weak points - improving and standardizing processes

While plant utilization planning only guarantees availability and capacity by optimally designing the duration and sequence of process blocks, it is the processes themselves that can almost always be optimized.

Bavaria Consulting uses the findings of Total Productivity Management (TPM) to analyze the existing processes, eliminate weak points, raise processes and process operators to a higher level of efficiency and describe and establish them as a standard.

Compact

Our experience is your success!

The partners of Bavaria Consulting have more than 20 years of project experience in the area of ​​supply chain management - purchasing, production / technology and logistics.

Our expertise is cross-industry - food, beverage and pharmaceuticals.

Ihr Ansprechpartner:
Martin Mehler

Head of Supply Chain
Phone+49 89 18908070
E-Mailmmehler@bavaria-group.com
powered by webEdition CMS