“Masaba is always looking to improve customer responsiveness and experience, and Opcenter [Advanced Planning and Scheduling] helped us understand our work order timelines and quickly respond to customers regarding delivery dates.”
– John Elmes, Manufacturing Manager, Masaba Canada
Business challenges:
- Fulfill increased demand from customers for custom-built mining plants
- Address frequently changing customer deadlines
- Improve the accuracy and line of communication with engineering and sales department
Keys to success:
- Implement Opcenter Advanced Planning and Scheduling
- Rely on expert support from SNic Solutions
Results:
- Enhanced manufacturing flexibility
- Improved on-time deliveries by 15 percent
- Optimized operations planning
- Strengthened communication with customers
Implementing Opcenter Advanced Planning and Scheduling
Masaba Inc. is a designer and manufacturer of custom-built mining equipment, which started in 2009. The mining equipment goes through six different departments in the facility, which produces permanent and mobile material handling systems. They saw an influx of demand like never before with increased customer demands and custom builds. Additionally, all of their customers wanted delivery at the same time. Subsequently, Elmes and his team turned to their ERP system hoping for answers. Unfortunately, their ERP system could not recognize production resource constraints when planning and scheduling. As a result, they needed to look elsewhere for a solution.
On-Time Deliveries Improved
Opcenter Advanced Planning and Scheduling (APS) is a software from Siemens Digital Industries Software that allowed Masaba to increase productivity with added operational complexity. Even after customers would ask for feature add-ons during the build process, which would then entirely change the end product, production hours, and material resources, they were still able to increase on-time deliveries by 15 percent by using Opcenter APS. Because Opcenter APS takes into account existing manufacturing constraints such as materials, tools, operators, and capacity it is unlike the ERP system that does not do these things. Masaba could have chosen to increase capacity, instead, they realized that with Opcenter APS, they could achieve greater efficiency by utilizing personnel more effectively.