Lorenzo Ferrante, head of logistics for the Lombard multinational MP Filtri, describes the supply chain improvement process that saw the implementation of CyberPlan in order to guarantee a high level of customer service.
What needs prompted you to look for an advanced solution for production scheduling?
“MP Filtri, in 2007, felt the need to improve its customer order fulfillment process. To this end, it carried out an in-depth mapping of the operational and IT flows involved in the process, taking into account the perimeter enclosed between the phase of receipt of the customer order, through the definition of the order confirmation and the issuance of purchase orders and internal processing. The process mapping highlighted the need to improve the tools to support the production planning activity and the definition of individual material management policies. The expected points of improvement were linked to greater reliability of order confirmations, improvement in the level of customer service and greater availability of information for users involved in the order fulfillment process.”
How is production planning carried out in MP Filters?
“The planning process is certainly influenced by the high number of items that MP Filtri makes available to its customers and by the contraction of the time horizon of the order book, which is in the order of 6 weeks. This generates a large amount of information to be managed; it is therefore necessary to have both fast and reliable tools in the execution of the calculations and to have reliable and up-to-date information for each individual article. In addition, a peculiarity of MP Filtri is the fact that the entire production process is carried out internally, starting from the aluminium ingot to reach the finished product. This makes it very important to carry out a correct planning of all the phases to get to fulfill the order on the date requested by the customer.”
Does CyberPlan also help communication?
“CyberPlan has certainly helped to bring the real customer request to every point of the production process. The pegging function that allows you to link each processing or purchase order to the customer order to which they are “linked” has allowed you to easily and daily transfer the real customer requests to the staff who have the task of managing the production processes. In this way, the departments are focused on the production of the items in the correct quantities and timing in such a way as to allow subsequent processes to have at their disposal the components that serve the real satisfaction of the customer’s request. This therefore leads to having the necessary items in the correct quantities in the correct times, with positive impacts on the value of the work in process and on compliance with delivery times. The focus of the production chain on real customer requirements has certainly been one of the key factors for MP Filtri.”
How does CyberPlan support the planning and achievement of business objectives?
“The planning process consists of a strategic phase, which is the analysis of the historical needs generated by customer orders in order to define the best management policy for each finished product and for each component. The forecasting module allowed the use of formulas customized by MP Filters that were applied to the different categories of articles. This made it possible to easily update the policies for each article, thus easily reporting the change in demand on all the components involved.”
What results have you achieved so far?
“MP Filtri could easily focus inventory on the items involved in generating most of the business. This is thanks to the introduction of the two-digit ABC class and the analysis of the frequency of use for each item. The optimisation of stocks and the correct planning of orders has made it possible to increase the level of punctuality of delivery (understood as sales orders shipped on time, compared to the date requested by the customer, instead of the agreed date, on the total of orders), this value is now around 95%. At the same time we have improved the turnover index of the warehouse which currently has a value of about 5.5-6: it is an excellent result considering the length of the production chain and the breadth of the product portfolio.”
What aspects do you appreciate most about CyberPlan?
“The immediacy in communicating the relevant information, the graphs that allow you to immediately understand the availability of materials and the profile of needs. Other important aspects of CyberPlan are the fact that it can process a lot of information quickly and the possibility of exploding the bill of materials by going to see the needs of the individual components, a really useful feature. Finally, the configurability offered by Cybertec’s APS allowed us to customize forecasting by introducing our own rules and formulas.”
MP Filters: hydraulic filtration for each sector
In its more than 50 years of history, MP Filtri has characterised the hydraulic filtration sector with an offer able to meet the needs of manufacturers in every industrial sector. The company designs, develops, produces and markets, directly and through 8 foreign subsidiaries and over 100 distributors in various countries around the world, a wide range of filters for hydraulic drives and a complete line of components for power transmissions and accessories for hydraulic circuits, pursuing the philosophy of product customisation. The Group also includes an aluminium foundry for die casting and shell casting, and a mechanical workshop for the processing of semi-finished products from the foundry itself. In addition, in the CMP Division research centre at the English branch, high-tech products for oil contamination control are designed, manufactured and continuously updated. The strong sensitivity towards the quality of its product and attention to the environment have allowed MP Filtri to obtain ISO 9001 and ISO14001 certifications.
The 1,200 m² R&D laboratory, built inside the headquarters in Pessano with Bornago, is a facility that houses the latest generation of machinery capable of carrying out research and testing under extreme conditions on products intended for the world market. An investment of about 2.5 million euros that allows the company to project itself into the future and to present itself as a real ‘partner’ for its customers, capable of guaranteeing reliability at every level, in terms of design, analysis, verification and realization of the final product. MP Filtri wants to guarantee customers the maximum guarantee in terms of quality and reliability: reliability both for existing products and for the development of new prototypes, which are often made to measure and therefore must be tested in advance. MP Filtri has thus been structured to address a context of this kind (the only reality in Italy and among the few in Europe) and this thanks not only to the new laboratory but to important initiatives such as the recent close collaboration agreement with the Politecnico di Milano.
Request a CyberPlan Demo
Request a CyberPlan demo, one of our professionals will answer your questions and support you in understanding how powerful tools like CyberPlan can support you and your company.
