optimizing production

REAL WORLD SCENARIOS Volume 2 Cases 7 - 12

OPTIMIZING PRODUCTION SQUEEZE MORE OUT OF PRODUCTION

OPTIMIZING SCHEDULING

INTEGRATED PROJECT MANAGEMENT

PRODUCTION FLOW IMPROVEMENTS

IMPROVING PREVENTATIVE MAINTENANCE

INTEGRATED MAINTENANCE PLANNING

ENHANCING PROJECT VISIBILITY

OPTIMIZING PRODUCTION Having a comprehensive, easy-to-use and effective suite

to be taken. This is particularly the case in project-driven

of planning tools will significantly improve the operational

environments where effective risk management is another

performance of a business. Buyers and production planners

key factor in achieving customer satisfaction.

need clear visibility of what is required, when it is required

Plant maintenance plays a key role in minimizing disruption

and why it is required. The supply of purchased materials and

to production schedules and ensuring quality output. Many

manufactured components need to be closely synchronized

businesses seek to introduce preventative maintenance to

with the product assembly schedule to minimize inventory,

increase machine uptime and minimize lifecycle costs. Real-

optimize productivity and maximize on-time delivery

time links to shop floor equipment present opportunities for

performance.

condition monitoring and predictive maintenance.

Integration of business systems offers many advantages. It

These cases studies illustrate how Columbus has helped

supports the coordinated planning of production with other

various industries optimize production using

functions, such as procurement and maintenance. It also

the ColumbusManufacturing solution set based on Microsoft

provides accurate and readily analyzed information which

Dynamics.

supports flow optimizations using techniques such as Lean Manufacturing. Increased visibility improves responsiveness to demand changes and enables a more proactive approach

CASE 7:

Optimizing Scheduling

! !

Issue

?

?

Remedy

A company making plastic toys needed to optimize the

Using the Microsoft Dynamics features for master planning

scheduling of its injection moulding machines at the same

and scheduling, all resource constraints are now considered

time as coordinating these plans with the assembly lines

during the planning process. Resources are linked through

which have to be reconfigured for each specific toy.

either the product structure (BOM) or the production routing. As planning is now automated, a first rough-cut

Problem

!

?

The changeover time on the injection moulding machines

schedule is generated, then subsequent versions created which can be fine-tuned. Similarly, a change in demand can be more easily modeled and a revised schedule published.

!

?

and the reconfiguration of the production lines was a lengthy process. The complete process needed careful

Benefits

coordination of various critical resources – setter, tooling, operators, components and packaging. The old ERP system

The ability to model and optimize the plans while

could link the injection moulding schedules to the assembly

considering all the constraints is now quicker and results

line, but other resources had to be managed manually.

in more efficient change-over sequencing. The number of

This planning took a small army of people and resulted in

last minute changes to the program is reduced. More stable

constant changes to the schedule which in turn generated

planning reduces the need to hold buffer stocks. Bottom line

too many assembly line changes and necessitated larger

benefits were:

safety stocks to buffer delays in production.

Better machine utilization Higher labor productivity Reduced inventory Improved responsiveness to demand changes

4

CASE 8:

Production Flow Improvements !

Issue

?

!

?

Remedy

A company making electronic equipment had experienced

Upgrading to Microsoft Dynamics has delivered the

rising levels of work in progress inventory due in part to the

opportunity to record key production data such as operation

need to buffer against the unreliability of key machines.

start and finish times on the critical machines. It has also

The company found that the shop floor was crowded,

facilitated analyzing this data in a number of different ways

which aggravated the problem of keeping work moving and

as part of the move to Lean. Additionally, electronic Kanbans

fast-tracking urgent orders. There was also

have now been introduced so that inventory is only pulled

a desire to implement Lean thinking, but the company didn’t

when needed by production, retaining the tracking and

know where to start.

costing controls needed in

!

?

their business. Problem

!

?

Benefits

The existing ERP system gave information on overall

The company has started the Lean journey with these

inventory levels and costs of production, but captured no

two initiatives. Capturing more accurate data about the

shop floor timings, so there was no basis for systematic

critical machines is allowing them to identify the bottleneck

analysis of what were the real bottlenecks. In addition,

machines and start to tackle their reliability. Kanbans are

inventory could only be issued to the batch at the beginning

reducing inventory holdings, but more importantly the shop

of the job, so there was no easy way to

floor is less cluttered and problems such as queues at the

stage issues or to move to a Kanban approach for

bottlenecks are becoming more visible

lower value items.

5

CASE 9:

Enhancing Project Visibility !

Issue

?

Columbus Advanced Project Management and Columbus Visual Project Planning allow them to schedule resources

A manufacturing company designs and manufactures

across the factory more easily. The Gantt chart format

specialist machinery for use in the automotive, aerospace

makes reviewing the progress of a specific customer project

and defence industries. The company predominantly

more visual – this includes Red/Amber alerts to highlight

manufactures to agreed customer specification, so the

potential late deliveries of purchased or manufactured

company tends to be project driven. Overall manufacturing

items. The fully integrated system is able to provide a

lead times can range from 6 to 18 months.

complete picture of an order from its design, procurement

Problem

!

?

!

?

and production, to dispatch and installation. Benefits

With such a variety of special customer requirements and long lead-times, the company has had two main issues over

The key benefit is improved visibility of orders going

the past few years. The first issue has been ensuring timely

through the shop floor resulting in:

delivery of materials. The second has been scheduling

Easier progress tracking of projects

resources both internally and with subcontractors. The

Greater ability to react to changes in a timely and

underlying problem has been lack of visibility in their old

orderly manner

account driven system. The impact

More efficient scheduling of resources both internally

has been poor on-time delivery and has led to some loss of

and externally

business.

Reduced stock levels

!

?

Improved on-time delivery performance Remedy Ultimately these improvements have led to increased Microsoft Dynamics has been implemented with additional modules to provide greater project-specific functionality.

6

business with customers.

CASE 10:

Integrated Project Management !

Issue

?

standard project accounting functionality, all project management tasks have now been migrated from the

A project-based design and development company had

standalone project system. All projects are established with

historically managed projects using traditional stand-alone

an initial financial baseline. Any changes to the project are

project management software that was independent of

automatically re-calculated into a new version of the budget

their accounting system. Each project

before approval. Resources are defined across the whole

was managed independently, leading to resource conflicts

business so that workload can be balanced. Actual time

across the portfolio of live projects. Cost control and

is now booked through daily timesheets, with automatic

financial reporting were difficult to calculate. Project

update for completed tasks, and the ability to flag potential

overruns on both time and cost were typical.

overruns.

Problem

!

?

!

?

Benefits

Managing projects independently of the financial system

The integration of project management, procurement,

gave rise to a number of issues. Cost estimation and

production and accounting processes within the single

budgeting were difficult, especially when there were

Microsoft Dynamics system results in a much greater ability

changes. Rescheduling of projects and calculation of cost to

to manage the project-based order book. Benefits include:

complete were time consuming. Project resource conflicts

Less time wasted re-keying data, so more time

across a number of portfolio managers were difficult to

addressing project issues

identify and resolve, leading to unexpected delays and added

Material planning better aligned with the up-to-date

costs. Purchasing was poorly

project plan

coordinated with project schedules.

Less disruption and delay due to fewer resource

!

?

conflicts Remedy

Timely management information allowing a more proactive response to potential problems

Using Columbus Advanced Projects module which has been implemented in conjunction with Microsoft Dynamics 7

CASE 11:

Improving Preventative Maintenance !

Issue

?

equipment. The forward schedule of planned maintenance work is now visible to production planners and can be

A large manufacturer of bed mattresses wanted to reduce

confirmed or changed nearer the time to ensure urgent

unplanned production stoppages due to equipment

production work is not disrupted. The status of current

breakdowns. With production volumes increasing, there was

maintenance jobs is up-to-date and visible. All maintenance

greater pressure on equipment uptime. They also sought

costs whether labor hours, spare parts or third party work is

to improve equipment life by performing preventative

booked to the specific equipment.

maintenance on a more systematic basis.

Problem

!

?

!

?

Benefits Benefits to date include:

Maintenance was mainly performed on an as-needed

More maintenance being performed on a planned basis

basis and record keeping was poor as it tended to be an

Accurate maintenance records giving better information

afterthought. As the maintenance records were poor,

on equipment performance and costs

it was not easy to obtain meaningful data on machine

Statistics on maintenance labor performance and

performance or maintenance costs.

response times

!

?

Better planning for production asset refurbishment and replacement

Remedy The company has introduced Columbus Enterprise Asset Maintenance along with Microsoft Dynamics. All significant production equipment is now registered and preventative maintenance policies established for each type of

8

Fewer breakdowns and less disruption

CASE 12:

Integrated Maintenance Planning !

Issue

?

business processes introduced to schedule maintenance work in coordination with the production plans. Interfaces

A high-volume manufacturer of automotive parts has

to machine controls are now written to record machine

sophisticated computer-controlled production equipment.

usage data, a key driver for preventative maintenance, and

This equipment requires good preventative maintenance

to capture any machine maintenance alerts. Loading of

to maintain uptime and efficiency. The computer controls

historic data from the old maintenance system has been

generated alerts on the status of the equipment, but this

prioritized for the key machines but generally only summary

was not being used.

history was loaded into the new system as the records were of variable quality. New machines are now purchased in

Problem

!

?

Microsoft Dynamics so accurate data is logged throughout their life in the one integrated system..

!

?

The company had historically managed their own manufacturing equipment using stand-alone plant

Benefits

maintenance software that was independent of their ERP system. This resulted in the duplicate purchasing of spares

Tight integration within Microsoft Dynamics eliminated

and consumables. In addition, production had limited

duplicate effort, improved visibility and helped ensure the

visibility of planned preventative maintenance work causing

right parts were on hand to service the equipment when

friction with the Maintenance Department.

needed. Overall benefits included:

!

?

Better planning of maintenance department workload resulting in greater efficiency

Remedy

Successful introduction of preventative maintenance disciplines

The Columbus Enterprise Asset Management module

Move towards predictive maintenance using real-time

has been implemented alongside Microsoft Dynamics.

condition monitoring data

Maintenance policies are now set for each machine and new

Improved on-time delivery performance

9

ColumbusManufacturing The issues and challenges presented here and many

ColumbusManufacturing allows you to utilize the solutions

more are addressed by ColumbusManufacturing.

and functionality you need. To learn more about the various

ColumbusManufacturing is an integrated business solution

components, visit www.columbusglobal.com

!

?

tailored for discrete manufacturers. It includes a combination of our award winning advanced discrete manufacturing software, our industry templates and implementation methodology all built onto the flexible and reliable Microsoft

> Microsoft Dynamics AX or Dynamics NAV

Dynamics platform.

> Columbus ADM (Advanced Discrete Manufacturing)

ColumbusManufacturing starts in the supply chain, though

> Columbus SCS (Supply Chain Solution)

warehousing, inventory, production planning, manufacturing,

> Columbus BIS (Business Integration Software)

sales, service, equipment maintenance, delivery routing,

> Columbus RapidValue

engineering, shop floor control, sub contract management and

> Columbus SureStep+

project planning and tracking. It is widely known for delivering

> Microsoft Dynamics CRM

improved efficiency and reduced costs by integrating all supply chain processes while providing accurate business metrics for improved decision making.

10

Introducing Columbus RapidValue RapidValue has been designed and developed by Columbus

RapidValue enables customers to translate business process

to help organizations implement best practice business

models into solutions while working directly in Microsoft

processes alongside their ERP implementation.

Dynamics AX. RapidValue is designed to meet 80% of your industry requirements out of the box.

RapidValue is a Business Process Modeling solution that is fully integrated into Microsoft Dynamics AX, the foundational

>> Business processes

platform of ColumbusManufacturing

>> User procedures >> Application functionality

>> Streamline business processes for efficiency and speed

>> User roles and profiles >> System set-up and base data

>> Adopt best practices when appropriate to the business >> Standardize business processes across the organization

11

The ColumbusManufacturting Real World Scenario Series

GETTING THE RIGHT MIX

INTEGRATING PRODUCT LIFECYCLE MANAGEMENT (PLM)

FACILITATING PRODUCT PERSONALIZATION

CONFIGURING PRODUCTS TO ORDER

IMPROVING VERSION CONTROL AND TRACEABILITY

REUSING COMPONENTS

MANAGING ENGINEERING CHANGES

OPTIMIZING PRODUCTION SQUEEZE MORE OUT OF PRODUCTION

REAL WORLD SCENARIOS

Volume 3 Cases 13 - 15

Volume 2 Cases 7 - 12

Volume 1 Cases 1 - 6

MANAGING PRODUCT COMPLEXITY

REAL WORLD SCENARIOS

REAL WORLD SCENARIOS

REAL WORLD SCENARIOS

MANAGING CUSTOMER REQUIREMENTS KEEP DELIVERING

Volume 4 Cases 16 - 18

ENSURING BEST PRACTICE... STREAMLINE YOUR BUSINESS PROCESSES.

OPTIMIZING SCHEDULING

INTEGRATED PROJECT MANAGEMENT

PRODUCTION FLOW IMPROVEMENTS

IMPROVING PREVENTATIVE MAINTENANCE

MANAGING COMPLAINTS AND THEIR ASSOCIATED COSTS

ENHANCING PROJECT VISIBILITY

CONTROLLING WARRANTY CLAIMS

EXPANDING BUSINESS OPERATIONS

INTEGRATED MAINTENANCE PLANNING

ADDING A SERVICE BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY

UTILIZING BEST PRACTICE PROCESSES

BUSINESS PROCESS STANDARDIZATION

Volume 1

Volume 2

Volume 3

Volume 4

Cases 1 through 6

Cases 7 through 12

Cases 13 through 15

Cases 16 through 19

Thanks to the ColumbusManufacturing Team for sharing their Real World Scenarios: Dave Ward, Deborah Vermillion. David McKenna, Niraj Nanda, David Raaphorst, Antony Prabhath, Bo Prychidnyj, Jeevan Anthony Louis, Les Shippen and Clyde Bennett.

For more information on Columbus, our client’s experiences and our solutions, please visit www.columbusglobal.com

ABOUT COLUMBUS: Columbus currently employs over 1,000 dedicated professionals working out of 41 offices in 21 countries. With more than 20 years experience and 6,000 successful implementations, Microsoft recognizes Columbus as a top global partner and has presented the company with virtually every award and certification available.

’Columbus’ is a part of the registered trademark ‘Columbus IT’