Master planning concept for efficient sales and production planning for a plant in China

Sales & Operations Planning
Alfa Laval provides specialized products and engineered solutions around the world, with key technologies including heat exchange, separation and fluid handling. Alfa Laval‘s innovative technologies are dedicated to the efficient purification, refining and recycling of natural resources, helping to improve energy efficiency and heat recovery, improve water treatment and reduce emissions.
Alfa Laval in China provides its products in JIT with order intake starting 52 weeks before delivery. While sales volume is increasing, it became clear that “master planning” processes for sales and operations planning needed to be optimized. UNITY was tasked with analyzing existing order intake, material purchasing and production planning processes, identifying potentials, then defining new executable processes to achieve clear departmental responsibilities and standardized operating procedures.
A comprehensive process analysis identified three pain points:
- Complex order confirmation process involving multiple experts across 3 departments
- Frequent customer demand changes and re-confirmation
- External product testing resulting in interruption of production
To address these pain points, 5 standard processes and 12 operation procedures regarding order processing were defined and implemented thus reducing internal changes. The responsibility for planning of new orders was re-assigned from different roles in three departments to one new planning team within the Material Purchasing and Supply Chain department improving communication and joint planning of order intake, material purchasing and production planning. Clear meeting rules and a meeting diary outline an accurate transmission of information and enable quick decisions and continuous improvement.
~ 50 % machining lead time reduction
~ 45 % tooling lead time reduction
5 processes and 12 standard operating procedures defined and implemented
“Together we were successful in developing processes that make the sales and operations planning even more efficient. Our expertise in order management and production planning as well as process modelling and improvement enabled us to design and verify a master planning concept that was perfectly tailored to the needs of the plant.“

Ingo Neumann
Managing Director
Your Contacts

Ingo Neumann
Managing Director UNITY China, Team Leader