The story of the path of innovation and implementation of the CyberPlan advanced planning and scheduling software in LTL, from the words of Pietro Lepore, Operations & Services Director.
What is LTL’s business model?
“In the last 3-4 years the company has increased the speed of change of its business model, so much so that today LTL is a material driven company in all respects,” says engineer Lepore. “In the sector in which we operate, demand variability is high. It is difficult to predict when the customer will return to buy from us because the market dynamics are the most varied and the customer’s behaviour depends both on us and on the competitors. Depending on how the market players move, therefore, customers then decide how to move their sources of supply and this leads to certainly very significant fluctuations in demand.”
What prompted LTL to look for an APS solution?
“Before the installation of CyberPlan, the planning process was manual: prints were extracted from the ERP (AS400) and using Excel, orders were issued to suppliers with a coverage of 3 months of stock, depending on the average consumption for each item. It was a planning that, unlike what happens today, did not present forecast logic, nor demand planning or reordering policies for different types of categories, so much so that the warehouse was certainly relevant.” Eng. Lepore then highlights how the market has increased in terms of complexity:“in the meantime the business was getting complicated, so much so that over a period of 5-10 years the codes to be planned have tripled”.
So in 2011 you implemented CyberPlan. How did the project unfold?
“The CyberPlan implementation project lasted less than a year overall, the go-live was therefore very fast – says Eng. Lepore – and the support from the Cybertec Team has always been excellent, both from the point of view of the availability of people, and their professionalism. If you need them, they are always available. ”
What benefits does LTL have on a daily basis from using CyberPlan?
“CyberPlan has brought us considerable added value,” says the supply chain manager. “First of all, the benefit of having managed a much higher complexity than in the past, due to the changed business model, with the same resources and with certainly better financial results because the inventory has decreased and at the same time the level of customer service has increased.”
“Then there are many advantages related to product flexibility: today companies quickly change their appearance, their model, and having a tool that adapts and changes according to the changes in the company is essential. I think it’s one of the strengths of CyberPlan.”
“CyberPlan also helps us from a communication point of view. As our management system is quite old, it is therefore also difficult to understand and use; a lot of information is therefore disseminated in the company thanks to CyberPlan. Information relating to product availability, relating to delivery dates of orders, on the arrival of missing products. It has therefore also become a tool for sharing information. That’s because it’s easy to use. ”
“In addition to flexibility, ability to adapt to the business model and usability, there is also the speed of information processing and therefore the ability to process calculations very quickly. A somewhat unique and distinctive feature of CyberPlan is that it has integrated the entire planning process into a single tool, from the forecast to the maximum scheduling detail. Finally, there is the navigability of information, the very fast analysis of missing data, the reminder plans for suppliers… This whole series of analyses, which are done by entering a little detail into the data and navigating within them, is very fast and very useful for companies.”
Eng. Lepore then highlights how the implementation project of the APS solution in LTL was appreciated by the parent company,“The improvements we had were also highly appreciated by Essilor, who recognized an important value to the project. In fact, the parent company has seen the goodness of the APS solution since it measures us in terms of compliance with purchase forecasts, being itself one of our suppliers”.
Who is LTL and what does it produce?
“LTL is a company that operates in the ophthalmic sector, therefore it markets finished and semi-finished lenses for eyeglasses and sunglasses,” says Lepore. The company that is now part of the French multinational Essilor International, has in fact transformed over time from a predominantly productive company to a distribution one. “We continue to produce but today we are mainly a distribution center where the customer can request different types of customization of the products or services offered, then the lenses are shipped to the end customer. This type of customization varies from the processing carried out on the product (e.g. special coatings on the lenses, branding, etc.) to the customization of the packaging. “
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