The HT group, active in production on order and in series of electrical resistors, has drastically reduced the time required for production planning, while improving various aspects of its supply chain. The interesting case of implementation of the APS CyberPlan software told by Lorenzo Pettarin, IT manager of the group.
What needs led HT to look for software for production scheduling?
“At the time we had two main difficulties: dating customer orders and controlling production loads. The first difficulty was due to the fact that the MRP linked to the management system only ran once a day. This prevented us from properly dating all orders that arrived throughout the day, which made us slow and unreliable. As a result, the time needed to respond to the customer had become unsustainable. The planning of the time led to poor control of production loads and the possibility of understanding with certainty what to release and what not to release to avoid work overloads. In fact, it often happened that customer orders became production orders without checking whether they could meet the date requested by the customer.
These two reasons led us to search for APS software through a software selection from which CyberPlan came out the winner. In addition to the capabilities of CyberPlan, the big difference was made by the people we met: Cybertec’s consultants immediately gave us the impression of expertise mixed with practicality, the perfect mix that HT was looking for to carry this project forward.”
How do you plan production in HT?
“The production of electric resistors in HT takes place both on order, with very personalised batches that we make on a specific customer project, and with the make-to-stock method, for products that can satisfy numerous customers. In both cases CyberPlan is critical for the dating of customer orders.”
Which departments use APS software?
“The goodness of the CyberPlan solution means that it is used by different departments: planning, purchasing and technical department. In addition to the planning department, in fact, the purchasing department uses it to have visibility of information regarding the dating and progress of production orders, allowing it to have a complete view and to speak the same language as the planning. The technical department then uses it in addition to having visibility, also because it is an active part in the dating process. Every day, in fact, HT designs new products specifically for some customers, this involves the creation of the relative cycle and bill of materials. The problem is solved thanks to the creation, within CyberPlan, of a provisional cycle and list that allow us to provide answers to the customer in terms of feasibility and timing, in a timely manner. This is basic to be able to have a reliable dating both in terms of quantities and timing of sales orders.“
What are the results obtained with the implementation of CyberPlan?
“The implementation of CyberPlan has led to benefits that have gone beyond software, in fact it has been a growth from different points of view.
The first positive impact was the graphic impact of the software, which made it possible to see the data effectively, to analyse several situations at the same time, and so on. That alone was a plus that made us take an incredible leap forward.
The time required for production planning has been drastically reduced, so much so that to provide the dating of a customer order we first needed a week of time, today we provide an answer in a few hours.
The growth of HT naturally also led to a change in what were the organizational needs. In all this, the system has always been flexible and ready to follow us in all these changes.
There has also been growth for staff, from a cultural point of view in the supply chain, so much so that today it is normal for staff to talk about issues such as safety stocks, the reordering batch, lead time. Cybertec and CyberPlan have thus contributed decisively to raising the level and quality of people’s work, a very important aspect, since the project was really felt by the staff themselves.”
What aspects of CyberPlan do you prefer?
“I’ve always been impressed by the graphics. This is both in terms of immediacy, thanks to the fact that it allows you to understand a whole series of information at a glance, and in terms of completeness of vision, because it allows you to have many aspects and a whole series of phenomena under control that you normally struggle to see at a glance.
Another aspect is the high skill of all the people at Cybertec with whom we have worked on the different projects. The level is always high and all people, even those new to our case, are always masters of the project, this is certainly not common, if only because the organization has changed profoundly and each time these people have entered with full knowledge of the tool and the project as if they had been the ones to implement it the first time: it also means that we have to deal first of all with capable people and then that the way of working is of a certain type...”
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The company
Since 1978, the year of its foundation, HT has designed and produced electric cartridge resistors. The product range, initially designed for applications on industrial machines, was quickly expanded with solutions for domestic heating and more. HT is now a group of 3 companies:
- HT spa that has 40 years of history;
- HT Est Division srl which carries out most of the production;
- HT Heizelemente Deutschland GmbH which is the German subsidiary.
The group is made up of over 400 employees and its turnover is around 27 million euros.
Since May 2017, the HT group has become part of the international industrial group Nibe, which brings together over 100 companies and 15,000 employees.