We make your production efficient Twinings of London Twinings of London is a global brand of high quality teas, selling its products in over 115 countries. The company has a 300-year tradition, which makes it the world's oldest brand of premium teas. It belongs to the global food group Associated British Foods, one of the largest food manufacturers in Europe, and offers customers a choice of over 200 blends of teas, both loose and bagge Twinings products are manufactured in seven different locations in different parts of the world. The idea of implementing Preactor APS in a new factory in Shanghai, China, stemmed from the need of the factory in the field of scheduling as well as from long-term positive experience of using Preactor in Twinings headquarters in Andover, UK. The tea production process consists of two basic stages: preparing tea mixes; packaging of pre-prepared mixes on automatic packaging lines. Preactor s task was to support the scheduling for the second stage of production, in which several hundred brands of tea are packaged on about 50 packaging lines. The starting point for scheduling of production is the main production plan generated centrally in Andover in Preactor GMPS for all the factories and distributed using the ERP system MFG/PRO (QAD Applications).used by Twinings. Each plant prepares its own production schedule by means of its local tools on the basis of the master plan sent to it. Before implementing Preactor in the factory in Shanghai, schedules were created in MS Excel spreadsheets and updated with information from MFG/PRO. Case description The problem was that such a method was timeconsuming, and taking into account the anticipated factory expansion it would become even more so. Another challenge was susceptibility to errors resulting from fully manually generated schedules. a local team from the factory in Shanghai,a team from the headquarters in Andover, Preactor supplier for the link to QAD in the U.S. and the services provider DSR from Poland. The main goal of the project was to create a solution that would reduce manual work needed to generate a feasible production schedule, which was supposed to ensure: Twinings decided to purchase the package of Preactor for QAD which has an in-built integration piece developed by MPS Associates in the U.S. covering a predefined configuration of Preactor and interfaced to QAD's ERP system. The project began in October 2010 involving teams from four different parts of the world: Reduction of time needed to create schedules Increased schedule quality (fewer errors resulting from manual data input) Increase in flexibility The solution was designed to be as simple as possible, but with a possibility of making adjustments and developments in the future. e-mail: dsr@dsr.com.pl biuro: dsr@dsr.com.pl http://www.dsr.com.pl www.dsr.com.pl
We make your production efficient The solution During the project it was necessary to make modifications to the existing interface to MFG/PRO, as well as to prepare solutions in support of data import into Preactor, such as tools for loading data from an Excel spreadsheet to the sequence dependant changeover time matrices defined in Preactor. A dedicated scheduling rule (algorithm) was developed automatically creating a preliminary schedule, "refined" later manually by a planner based on his knowledge and experience. Nonstandard mechanisms have been built into the rule, such as for example automatic allocation of production orders in the case of the occurrence of certain conditions. Another part of the project was to create an emergency solution designed to take over the critical process of scheduling in the event of any problems. The emergency solution consists of a dedicated server, a copy of the configuration of Preactor and the process of a quick transition to the emergency mode. Preactor was launched in early March 2011 after nearly two months' in-depth testing and successfully took over the process of scheduling the factory. Gary Qian is head of planning in the factory. "Without Preactor we would not be able to create schedules so fast and of such a good quality. Among the future plans is to implement Preactor in another newly established Twinings plant in Poland. It was also necessary to do some work on the basic data concerning indexes and their production technologies stored in the ERP system so that they could be used directly for scheduling. e-mail: dsr@dsr.com.pl biuro: dsr@dsr.com.pl http://www.dsr.com.pl www.dsr.com.pl
We make your production efficient Sonoco Poland Packaging Services Sp. z o.o. Sonoco is an international producer of consumer and industrial goods packaging and a provider of packaging services. The company, with the main headquarters in Hartsville, USA, operates in 35 countries and manufactures packages for various industries and for numerous established brands, serving clients from 85 countries. The experience to understand the needs and requirements of packaging allows it to provide its clients with program management, purchase of materials and management of stock statuses and distribution. Sonoco Poland Packaging Services Sp. z o.o. operates in the sector of packaging services. In 2005, the company opened an advanced Production plant, Located in the Łódź Special Economic Zone. Case description The plant consists of as many as 60 production lines for packing of various levels of automation. Reaching the highest possible efficiency with maximized use of machines has always been a priority for the company. It is important to note that the usage of the company s machinery is subject to dynamic changes, which requires precision in planning. Prior to the introduction of APS Preactor, planning was conducted weekly. Od Wednesdays, the company received commissions from its clients for the following week. Until Friday, the planning team worked on the schedule using Excel with the support of information from MRP. The team had to plan production for the following day based on information received at 10 AM. Additionally, daily plans were modified during the day. Other indexes still operated under the weekly schedule. The merging of the two plans, coupled with multiple, dynamic changes in the production process and the order priority, became the trigger to the search for a tool to enable such combination. The main motivation behind introducing APS Preactor was the desire to change to daily planning of multiple indexes. e-mail: dsr@dsr.com.plhttp://www.dsr.com.pl biuro: www.dsr.com.pl
We make your production efficient The solution The APS Preactor system was chosen due to the competence of the local partner, the DSR company, and the ready QAD system interface. The possibilities of restrictions control became an additional argument. The ability to divide production orders in case of partial shortage of resources to complete an order proved to be equally important. Owing to the implementation of the APS Preactor system, the Poland Packaging Services Sp. z o. o has significantly accelerated the process of creating the production schedule and has gained the ability to quickly change that schedule. The additional advantage were the benefits, which came from the reduction of the planning staff. e-mail: dsr@dsr.com.plhttp://www.dsr.com.pl biuro: www.dsr.com.pl
We make your production efficient Vienna Airport One of the most well known scheduling tools in European industry, Preactor has now been live at Vienna International Airport for more than year to optimize the dayto-day allocation of gates to incoming flights. Case description Until now this took many hours before Schengen (the agreement by some countries whereby passengers do not need to show a passport on arrival) went into operation and now because of the additional complexity and therefore constraints, an interactive decision support tool was required. This needed to take into account the type of arriving aircraft, airline, number of transfer passengers, country of origin and outgoing destination, as well as the constraints of adjacent pier occupation, embarkation times, shift patterns of airport staff and so on. Preactor is used both off-line to test alternatives rules and strategies on new flight schedules, and as an on-line tool to assign flights to gates using the rules made available to the users. Each day, as information arrives on passengers for the following day s flights, this is automatically imported into the Preactor Gate Planner, flights added to the existing plan and appropriates reports produced. Then, as changes occur to arrival and departure times these are assessed by the system for potential changes to the plan to be made either manually using the interactive electronic planning board or automatically as required. The solution Consultant Dr. K. Heinz Weigl was responsible for the Preactor configuration design, installation and training for the Vienna Airport Movement Team. The key to this successful project was the flexibility of Preactor to be configured to handle the complexity of the application combined with its graphical displays that offered true user interaction. The planners like to use it and with very little training were up and running within days. It has already produced major benefits for the Airport Authority. e-mail: dsr@dsr.com.pl biuro: dsr@dsr.com.pl http://www.dsr.com.pl www.dsr.com.pl
We make your production efficient Anton Pfeffer led the Vienna International Airport team. In the last weeks I analysed the statistics of 1998, which was the first year where the Schengen agreement was in force at Vienna Airport. Although there was a loss of flexibility and the allocation rules are quite complicated, the use of the piers was very efficient. The number of flight movements at the 20 pier positions was 77,518 which is 5,300 more than in 1997. This is an increase of 7.6 % compared to the 5.4 % in the total aircraft movements. The number of passengers handled at the piers was 7,206,660 or an increase of 844,000 passengers (14.9 %). This result is better than what we could expect and was based on the daily work of the people of movement control and the use of the Preactor software. e-mail: dsr@dsr.com.pl biuro: dsr@dsr.com.pl http://www.dsr.com.pl www.dsr.com.pl
Application Note Automotive CATERPILLAR Global Paving Overall Process Efficiency (OPE) KPI Analysis with OPERA 5.0 Year 2009 Background CAT Global Paving Division is a complete business within a large corporation: $ 750 mln turnover 1,200 employees 5 plants 138.000 sq m Opera was already in place but it was only used for product cost analysis no data tracking for production progress, no measuring of production efficiency. Overall Process Efficiency (OPE) tells you how efficient a product manufacturing or assembly process is. OPE involves 3 elements and is calculated when the process is complete. OPE % = Performance X Availability X Quality Application Interface between Opera and the existing ERP automatic update of standard cycles and times from the ERP system to Opera Hours are tracked using the barcode of work orders, work centers and operator badge. Calculating OPE per work station / work order Benefits Immediate detection of the main reasons impacting OPE: losses in Availability, Quality and Performance Continuous improvement through remedial actions and waste minimization +20% Performance For further information about this or any other reference, please contact Open Data by email: Davide Ravanelli Partner Manager d.ravanelli@opendatasrl.it www.opendatasrl.it
Application Note Packaging FINCARTA Packaging Group Production Monitoring and Control Year 2010 Background Multinational group specializing in paper and cartonboard for the packaging industry (5 sites -1 of them in Boston, US. ) PLV (VA) Italy Cartotecnica Tifernate (PG) Italy Cartotecnica Chierese (TO) Italy Con-Pack (TO) Italy TWO C-Pack Boston, US. Quality, consistency, innovation. You expect them, we demand them. Whether you require full packaging design from concept through final execution we can readily meet your needs by offering standard, semi-automated carton erecting, equipment to customized fully, automatic packaging systems Implementation OPERA was already in operation at the plant known as Cartotecnica Tifernate -close to Perugia- and then selected by the Group Management as the reference MES solution to be implemented across all the 5 sites, including the one in the US. Over 2010 a pilot project has been carried out in Daverio including a range of key features such as Tracking employees hours worked Tracking number of pieces cartonboard containing finished product Labelling and automatic material handling Batch track & trace Benefits Resource Optimization and Cost Reduction Increase in overall plant performance Complete production control Increased productivity levels For further information about this or any other reference, contact Open Data by email: Davide Ravanelli Partner Manager d.ravanelli@opendatasrl.it www.opendatasrl.it
Application Note Metal fabrication FAR Complete Machine Management and Automation Year 2000 Background FAR is the Italian leader in the production of the widest range of fastening systems and gives continually correct solutions to the market needs. 1 manufacturing plant, around 100 employees Application Machine connection: Part counting Machine downtime tracking Automatic restart of operations when machine is re-run Warning operators about machine-related events with light switching system Batch terminals are used to integrate machine / PLC data tracking Managing boxes Tracking gross/net weight Automatic box labeling Data analysis Maps of depts. used by supervisors to monitor machine status in real time Data recording into a parallel DB and report generation with MS Reporting Services Creation of reports analyzing machine performance over work shifts Benefits Full control of machines Improved machine efficiency Accurate analysis of production process Timely and effective management of unexpected events Increased productivity Resource optimization For further information about this or any other reference, contact Open Data by email: Davide Ravanelli Partner Manager d.ravanelli@opendatasrl.it www.opendatasrl.it
Application Note Pharmaceutical HELVOET PHARMA Manufacturing Process Management Automation Year 1999 Background Helvoet Pharma is a leading supplier of primary and secondary packaging components (mainly rubber and aluminium) in the most advanced areas of the parenteral pharmaceutical market, with a specific focus on vaccines, diabetic care and biotechnology. 5 plants across the world Belgium (1), Germany (1), Italy (2) and the US (1). OPERA MES deployed in the Montegaldella plant VICENZA ITALY, around 100 employees. Application This is a complete MES implementation where batch track & trace - TUV Certification - and Process Control applications interfaced with PLC machines and measurement devices play a key role. Main features: Recipe Management to produce rubber compounds PLC interface for process parameters tracking -temperature, thickness and so forth OPC server to interface PLC machines with OPERA Batch traceability in compliance with TUV certification Warning about machine breakdown for operators to run maintenance actions Benefits Increased productivity +18% Reduced spoilage by 33% Ensuring the highest quality standards in compliance with TUV Certification For further information about this or any other reference, please contact Open Data by email: Davide Ravanelli Partner Manager d.ravanelli@opendatasrl.it www.opendatasrl.it
Application Note Machinery & Equipment OMZ Officine Meccaniche Zanetti Production Planning & Scheduling + Real-time Factory Data Collection Year 2005 Background OMZ is a leading manufacturer of machinery, assemblies and small parts for a wide range of market applications, from the iron & steel industry to shipbuilding, energy and civil works. Based in Vicenza (VI), OMZ has 1 site with 50 employees. Application This is a full-blown MES project where OPERA is also used to generate Production Orders MRP functionality. The system is also connected to Preactor FCS scheduling software so as to assure on-time delivery and asperfect-as-possible after sale service. Benefits Increased productivity +22% WIP Reduction 28% Remarkable increase in on-time deliveries Reduced production costs (indirect labour, bottlenecks, downtimes) For further information about this or any other reference, contact Open Data by email: Davide Ravanelli Partner Manager d.ravanelli@opendatasrl.it www.opendatasrl.it
Case Study Betts Tubes THE COMPANY Betts is the global leader in the production of laminate tubes. Supplying a wide range of fmcg customers, Betts currently sells in excess of 3 billion tubes per year. Betts has the leading global position in the global oral care market, supplying the worlds major toothpaste and denture fixative brands. Increasingly Betts laminate tubes are finding favour in the personal care market for products such as hair colorants, gels, shampoo, creams, washes and specialist food products. Shipment of either an incorrect pallet or a late delivery could slow or even shut down the customer s product line. This would be unacceptable. This was summarised by Chris Herbert, IT Manager at Betts The ability to locate a pallet quickly is essential to our business. The tracing of pallets of a specific batch of finished goods can be extremely difficult. Customers demand a specific pallet of completed tubes. We have to be able to locate and ship this pallet very quickly. Chris Herbert continued Due to the physical environment that we are often working in, our previous stock accuracy was sometimes as low as 60-70 %. Betts vast range of tubes in a variety of laminates and in dimensions from 16mm 50mm are manufactured on state of the art equipment running up to 300 tubes a minute the world s fastest commercial technology. Betts is the industry leader in print capability with six colour flexo graphic and letterpress presses offering either hot or cold foil blocking and silk screen print in line. Betts also have a full injection moulding capability, allowing them to produce a full range of caps and shoulders from simple fez caps to two colour bi-injection flip-top caps. We could not locate and ship pallets quick enough to supply the customer without RF Express for QAD Enterprise Applications. The decision to purchase a data collection system to complement their QAD Enterprise Applications ERP system was detailed by Chris Herbert Our present systems did not allow us to support our customers. We needed to implement a system that was totally integrated into QAD Enterprise Applications. We wanted a standard product that did not require any additional servers. It had to be flexible enough to match our business practices. In short we needed a product that would enable us to quickly and simply track pallets and trace their shipment to the customer. We required a supplier who had knowledge of not just data collection but also of QAD Enterprise Applications THE CHALLENGE Betts Tubes supply a very high volume of tubes direct to the customer. These tubes have to be delivered in a set sequence at very short notice. Performance Made Portable
Case Study Betts Tubes HOW EAGLE MET THE CHALLENGE Today Betts tubes use RF Express for QAD Enterprise Applications to record all movements of raw material pallets across 1000 locations per facility. The ease of recording pallets has allowed the introduction of FIFO issuing of the raw materials to the work orders. Finished goods pallets can be quickly and simply located in the warehouse without having to return to an office. All finished goods movements and picking against customer requirements are also recorded real-time. Increased Data Accuracy. The use of barcodes and scanning of the goods has removed typing and writing errors. Accurate Inventory Levels. By recording at the time of Transfer, Issue and Picking an accurate picture of all inventory can be obtained. Stock Accuracy has increased to a level in excess of 99.5% in the facilities in which we use Eagle s solution THE FUTURE THE RESULTS After the success of the implementations at the two UK and one Chinese manufacturing facilities, Betts are looking to extend the implementation to their other manufacturing facilities based worldwide. Chris Herbert summarised the project: Stock accuracy has increased to a level in excess of 99.5% in the facilities in which we use Eagle s solution. We could not locate and ship pallets quick enough to supply the customer without RF Express for QAD Enterprise Applications. This has allowed Betts Tubes to report the following benefits from the introduction of RF Express for QAD Enterprise Applications : Traceability of pallets. RF Express has allowed Betts to quickly locate pallets of finished goods. Simple recording of pallet transactions. Pallet movements, shipments and cycle counts can be recorded in two scans. Ease of transactions. The transactions are simple to use and have therefore been easily adopted by the warehouse personnel. HOW CAN WE HELP YOU?: Eagle Europe Ltd, Cotswold Innovation Centre, Rissington Business Park, Upper Rissington, Glos, UK. GL54 2QB Tel: +44(0) 1451 812266 e-mail: info@eagle-europe.com www.eagle-europe.com RF Express for QAD Enterprise Applications and RF express FOR QAD Enterprise Applications are trademarks of Eagle Consulting and development ; QAD Enterprise Applications is a registered trademark of QAD Inc. QAD is a trademark of QAD Inc. All other product or company names appearing in this publication are used for identification purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective owners. Performance Made Portable
Case Study Birkby s Plastics THE COMPANY Birkby s Plastics based in Liversedge in the UK, specialises in the design, manufacture and assembly of plastic components for automotive and specialist industries worldwide using state-ofthe-art technology. By offering cost-effective technical solutions with best practice quality systems, Birkby s is well placed to take on the toughest competition and ensure complete customer satisfaction. Today, Birkby s delivers quality exports... Tomorrow, the company is et to break the mould, taking the plastics industry into a high tech future. Birkbys s received a QAD Rev d up Award for its rapid upgrade from QAD Enterprise Applications 8.5e to eb2 which took just 8 weeks to undertake. QAD view Birkby s as a company who has achieved something special by completing this process in such a short time frame. THE CHALLENGE As part if the core competence within Birkby s logistics offers total supply chain support and consists of: 19000 sq ft 1765m² bulk warehouse facility; 3090 pallet locations; High bay (10.5 metre) mobile racking system; Sate of the art high bay reach trucks with on-board camera monitoring system; 2 dock level loading doors; Rear & side loading on two external stand bays. Birkby s receives in excess of 700 pallets of finished goods every day and despatch between 1000 and 1500 pallets on over 50 vehicles daily. Customer focus and a dynamic approach to individual market sectors are at the heart of the Birkby s Plastics. Its three separate business units Business Electronics, European Automotive and Japanese Trim provide better understanding of customer needs, better performance in respect of project timing and improved communication. Birkby s needed a solution that would help them guarantee accurate labelling and delivery of their products and take the time consuming manual inspection out of the process. The initial requirements for Eagle came from the need to ensure that deliveries were electronically verified in the dispatch process to ensure that correct goods were always shipped tot eh customer. This became a pressing new contracts with Honda manufacturing in the UK. The recent history of Birkbys has seen a Management Buy Out in 2003. From there Birkby s looks forward to the future with plans to stay ahead of the plastic moulding industry through new innovations and customer focus. Since then Birkby s was the only plastics manufacturer to receive one of Toyota Motor corporation s four inaugural Regional Contribution Awards at the company s Global Supplier Convention in Nagoya, Japan in March 2005. The exacting labelling and logistics information flows were very difficult and time consuming to manually manage and Birkby s needed a way to streamline and error proof the process. Performance Made Portable
Case Study Birkby s Plastics HOW EAGLE MET THE CHALLENGE The initial objectives for main implementation was to simplify and error proof the shipping process. The focus was therefore to use Eagle to create container labels from the repetitive backflush. From this point the containers are moved tot he shipping area using a single scan, which updates the QAD inventory and abs records. A picklist is generated, based on the downloaded EDI schedules, with detail location information to show which containers and where to pick from for each shipper. The operator attaches the containers selected to teh shipper where it verifies that the container / parts are and a shipping label is attached a check san is made to ensure it has been attached to the correct scan is made to ensure it has been attached to the correct box. If everything is correct this allows the operator to print the shipping documentation required for transit. The shipper with the container numbers that was generated by the scanning is then sent by EDI to the customer. The next stage is to use Eagle fro Purchase receiving and material movement from goods inwards to the work centre. Being real time the system has many error traps to improve the data qualify. An example of this is that it wont let users backflush the same container twice at Birkby s this improved stock accuracy significantly. The data capture being done real time has vastly improved stock accuracy. There are no measures of accuracy in place but now when the picklist is generated the pick success is very close to perfect. In the automotive industry stillage tracking is important and Birkby s can identity for each shipment which stillage was used to ensure traceability in case of loss and management of the stillages to ensure that there is availability for production. The real-time data capture has vastly improved stock accuracy. When the picklist is generated the pick success is very close to perfect THE FUTURE THE RESULTS When Birkby s and Eagle piloted the processes it became apparent that the RF Express for QAD Enterprise Applications could bring a wide range of business savings in addition tot he targeted business need. After the implementation the key benefits identified were: A large amount of manual input has been removed from the process. In backflushing the simplified screens using pre-created Odette labels allow the users to backflush and create QAD Enterprise Applications containers in very few scans. Birkby s are investigating RFID for tracking of stillages to some of their major customers. The use of RFID will remove the annual process to book the back into the factory and sure tracing and monitoring of these expensive pieces of equipment. HOW CAN WE HELP YOU?: Eagle Europe Ltd, Cotswold Innovation Centre, Rissington Business Park, Upper Rissington, Glos, UK. GL54 2QB Tel: +44(0) 1451 812266 e-mail: info@eagle-europe.com www.eagle-europe.com RF Express for QAD Enterprise Applications and RF express FOR QAD Enterprise Applications are trademarks of Eagle Consulting and development ; QAD Enterprise Applications is a registered trademark of QAD Inc. QAD is a trademark of QAD Inc. All other product or company names appearing in this publication are used for identification purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective owners. Performance Made Portable
Demag Cranes and Components Ltd Case Study System Preactor 300 FCS (program do harmonogramowania produkcji, bazujący na rzeczywistych zdolnościach produkcyjnych fabryki) zastąpił system ręczny, oparty na tablicy planistycznej w firmie Demag Cranes & Components - producencie między innymi żurawi obrotowych, systemów dźwignic, podnośników. "Rezultatem wdrożenia było podniesienie efektywności produkcji poprzez uzyskanie lepszego wglądu w planowanie przyszłych zapotrzebowań. Frank Reynolds, dyrektor ds. produkcji w firmie Demag Cranes & Components wyjaśnia, jak pomógł system Preactor: "Jesteśmy firmą mającą obroty na poziomie 56 milionów funtów i nasz stary system ręczny nie nadążał za zmianami w warsztatach produkcyjnych. Każdy produkt jest wykonywany indywidualnie na podstawie zlecenia, a nie w partiach, co sprawia, że operacje produkcyjne są bardzo skomplikowane. Kolejnym krokiem jest zakup stali do każdego zlecenia. Naszym największym produktem jest dźwig girder o wadze 50 ton i 44 metrach długości, który wymaga dużej ilości stali!" Firma Demag Cranes & Components szukała na rynku oprogramowania, które spełniłoby takie wyzwania produkcyjne. Zdecydowała się na system Preactor, który został zaprojektowany, aby umożliwić przedsiębiorstwom większą kontrolę nad procesami produkcyjnymi poprzez zrównoważenie popytu z możliwościami fabryki. Jednym z rezultatów wdrożenia było również poprawienie poziomu obsługi klientów i redukcja kosztów. "Odkryliśmy, że Preactor w szybkim czasie może być dostosowany do naszych potrzeb" - dodaje Frank Reynolds. "Potrzebowaliśmy tylko kilku dni konsultacji, następnie trochę dostrojenia i teraz nasze przyszłe zapotrzebowania są dobrze widoczne. Widzimy, co się będzie działo przez następne kilka miesięcy. Te informacje wykorzystujemy do wprowadzenia dat do zapotrzebowań materiałowych w systemie SAP. Teraz również wykorzystujemy Preactora chcąc uzyskać odpowiedź na pytanie, czy przewidywane zlecenie jest realne do wykonania, czy też nie. Jest to bardzo pomocne narzędzie."
Eliane Revestimentos Ceramicos Case Study Firma Eliane Revestimentos Ceramicos (powstała w roku 1960) jest jednym z największych producentów materiałów ceramicznych, który dostarcza ponad 1800 produktów do 85 krajów na całym świecie. Eliane zatrudnia 2 200 osób w swoich 12 fabrykach zlokalizowanych w różnych regionach Brazylii. Eliane była pierwszym przedsiębiorstwem tego typu, które zaadoptowało narzędzia do zaawansowanego harmonogramowania. Rozpoczęto od projektu pilotażowego, którego celem było rozpoznanie potencjalnych korzyści z wdrożenia systemów Preactor. Większość firm spodziewa się po zakupie Preactora następujących efektów: Poprawy poziomu obsługi klienta Gwarancji, że daty dostaw będą dotrzymane Obniżenia kosztów produkcji Zmniejszenia czasów wytworzenia Zwiększenia produktywności i minimalizacji strat Obniżenia poziomów stanów magazynowych Poprawy systemu dokonywania zakupów Jeżeli program pilotażowy dostarczyłby oczekiwanych rezultatów, można by było kontynuować wdrażanie tej technologii we wszystkich 12 fabrykach, aby uzyskać synchronizację produkcji między lokalizacjami oddalonymi od siebie nawet o 3 000 kilometrów. Każda fabryka zajmuje się wytwarzaniem specyficznych produktów, ale niektóre z wyrobów mogą być produkowane w dwóch lub trzech zakładach produkcyjnych. Przed wdrożeniem systemu Preactor harmonogramowanie było zdecentralizowane i wykonywane za pomocą arkuszy kalkulacyjnych. Każda fabryka dokonywała kontroli i