Sofia Med, a subsidiary of ElvalHalcor’s copper segment, has embarked on a new, dynamic phase focusing mainly on industrial customers and the automotive sector, for which high service levels, including on-time delivery, reliable customer information and short lead times are the key to success.
The company had to address several challenges during the transition, like inventory costs, inventory distribution, product mix volatility that caused moving bottlenecks, response time to major production disruptions, difficulties in running “what-if” scenarios, and making planning decisions without standardized criteria.
The complexity of Sofia Med’s production process meant that traditional tools were insufficient to meet those challenges. So, the company decided in 2019 to use supply chain optimisation software, and it chose Quintiq of the Delmia suite. Part of Dassault Systems, the worldwide well-known planning software is used primarily in the metal industry and is designed to empower manufacturing, supply chain and service providers to efficiently plan, manage, optimise, and execute their operations.
The Delmia Quintiq solution improves sourcing, distribution, production and inventory management by allowing users to explore scenarios -with speed and flexibility, and to evaluate different outcomes before deciding on the best course of action to meet business KPIs. It creates an accurate base plan that can be tested against any number of scenarios, factoring in all rules, constraints and KPIs to create the most accurate model of the supply chain. It also supports all sales and operations (S&OP) maturity levels, offering best practices models for all S&OP activities regardless of the company’s level of maturity, and reduces lead time by up to 15% (depending on the product).
Delmia - Quintiq consists of several applications that cover planning horizons from hours or days (short-term planning/scheduling) and weeks (operational or mid-term planning) to years (long term planning and budgeting). Quintiq specifically covers the supply planning among other disciplines, such manufacturing operation management, fabrication and lean manufacturing. This holistic tool supports the entire supply chain, from raw material optimisation and long-term planning to detailed scheduling.
Sofia Med decided to invest in two Delmia - Quintiq applications: Company Planner and Scheduler. The target of the project’s first phase was to implement a software that creates an hourly execution schedule for all machines in the Rolling mill and Foundry for a period of two to four days, accurately forecasting when newly entered customer order products will be ready. Previously, these dates were based on the quantity of weekly baskets, which was not very accurate due to the complexity of the production process and the diversity of the company’s product portfolio.
The Delmia - Quintiq Company Planner takes into account production routing, operation duration for each routing, requested due dates, available shifts, and materials, and provides the possible readiness date for each order. In essence, the application acts as a “black box”, solving the puzzle in the optimal way. It has allowed Sofia Med to achieve greater accuracy in order execution planning and improved raw material planning with a Just-In-Time (JIT) strategy. It has also for a decrease in early production and sleeping material, i.e., a reduction of the work-in-progress (WIP), and increased customer satisfaction, leading to more orders and higher profit.
Following the implementation of the Delmia - Quintiq system and a period of conceptual changes in Sofia Med’s planning logic, significant results are already visible. Delivery performance has increased substantially, delays have been reduced, inventory distribution in rolling is more balanced and available at the right time, and the accuracy of the monthly production plan has significantly improved. Furthermore, the company is now able to run reliable “what-if” scenarios, respond quickly to change in a product mix and demonstrate flexibility in response to production disruptions.
Thanks to the results achieved with the Delmia - Quintiq system, Sofia Med and Whisco Consultants, the prime contractor and supporter of the project, earned two awards at the 2023 Manufacturing Excellence Awards, one silver and one gold, for Advanced Planning and Production Scheduling. “The success of a project managed by a team of experienced and motivated people is guaranteed,” said Sofia Med’s supply chain management director, Petros Kyrou. “The key words always are ‘experience’ and ‘motivation’ and I am glad to see that both are available in our project group. The Delmia - Quintiq system provides Sofia Med with invaluable visibility of our supply chain and unwavering reliability towards our customers, further propelling our company's development."