SUPPLY CHAIN EXCELLENCE AWARDS 2017
CATEGORY: MANUFACTURING
Winner: Elval SA
Shortlisted:
Unipart Rail with Bibby Distribution
Covestro
Elval SA
Gooch & Housego with Omnify Software
The manufacturing supply chain encounters some of the toughest challenges, sparking innovation and many examples of supply chain excellence. Here the top two contenders for the Manufacturing trophy were Covestro and Elval S.A.
Covestro, formerly Bayer Material Science, has 30 production sites, 15,700 employees and is one of the world’s largest high-tech polymer producers, providing innovative products for the automotive, electrical, construction and sports & leisure industries. The business has recently embarked on a cross-functional project to strengthen its execution capabilities, encouraging and developing structured fact-based collaboration across the enterprise. The judges liked the way a continual improvement culture that enjoys a shared vision of success, has been skilfully introduced across the multiple silos of the business. So far, the team has deployed the program across 56 teams, engaging 500+ employees from all its regions. The improved KPIs and financial benefits achieved to date look promising and the judges look forward to hearing more on how the project develops – perhaps in next year’s entry. But for now, good as it is so far, this was not to be the winning entry.
Elval S.A, an aluminium processing company based in Greece, has over a number of years implemented a series of supply chain production planning and scheduling projects using Quintiq software – an initiative that spans multiple functions within the business, from planning, supply chain and sales to production, IT and others. The processing of rolled aluminium products requires the careful planning of various production flows, such as casting, hot-rolling, cold-rolling and finishing – all of which needs to be flexible and transparent. The system helps to map each planning action, including specifications, delivery due daters, constraints and shifting bottlenecks, as well as finer points. Key benefits from the initiative include significant improvements in on-time, in-full (OTIF), reduced inventory/cycle times, increased throughput and reduced costs – all points that took the interest of the judges. In particular, they were impressed by the way the project has significantly improved the business’ competitive position. Elval is one week’s transport time further away from customers than its main European competitors, but the systems put in place now allow the company to operate in markets where previously it would not have been possible. The judges felt this was worthy of recognition and so decided to award the trophy for Manufacturing to Elval S.A.
