Due to the very wide range of products in the various distribution channels, the previous planning at Dr. Kurt Wolff GmbH & Co. KG reached its limits. To ensure end-to-end transparency, the project therefore focused on a holistic display of multi-stage production processes and centralized information processing.
Initially, only the Excel planning should be replaced and the daily business for production planning should be mapped. Now we were even able to save the planning rules in the system, which previously only existed in the planners’ heads.
Jens Müller, Head of Operations Planning, Dr. Kurt Wolff GmbH & Co. KG
The company manages all relevant master data in the ERP system. Before using FASTEC 4 PRO, the rough planning was also carried out there. Detailed scheduling and production control took place in a complex Excel spreadsheet, which had a high degree of variability and many intervention options.
This is what the company aimed to achieve with the introduction of a digital planning solution:
- Improved knowledge transfer among employees, additional planning support
- Transparency regarding restrictions, rules and processes
- Elimination of redundant data, reduced maintenance effort
Exchange on an Equal Footing and Good Integration of the Software
The FASTEC software met the requirements of Dr. Kurt Wolff GmbH & Co. KG. Jens Müller was also impressed by the exchange at equal footing:
The cooperation was always open and communicative.
Jens Müller, Head of Operations Planning, Dr. Kurt Wolff GmbH
The proximity of the location was an additional advantage. The initial consideration of individual customer requirements was carried out in detail. Finally, the certified SAP interface also ensured that the FASTEC software could be easily integrated.
It was clear at an early stage that SAP would remain the leading system in the IT system architecture and that the transition from Excel planning to the new planning system would be a hard cut. The dependencies between production lines, buffer tanks and filling lines can only be taken into account through a holistic view in a central planning system.
Solution: More Transparency, Less Complexity
Today, the production department at Dr. Kurt Wolff GmbH & Co. KG transfers master and transaction data from SAP to FASTEC. Preplanning sorts and groups production orders according to various criteria. This allows orders that require the same content in different formats, for example, to be grouped together.
The optimized order sequence creates campaigns to minimize set-up times. The campaigns are scheduled to the work centers in production using the Gantt chart in detailed scheduling. Multi-resource planning takes into account the capacities of the plant and equipment. Finally, the planning data is reported back to SAP.
FASTEC was the best choice for our requirements, especially with the focus on detailed scheduling.
Jens Müller, Head of Operations Planning, Dr. Kurt Wolff GmbH
