Paper Technology International 2024 - Journal - Page 50
PAPERTECHNOLOGYINTERNATIONAL
IBP Features:
1. Advanced Forecasting: Continuous end demand
forecasts using statistical models, machine learning,
customer intelligence, and market projections, shifting
the paper industry’s focus from supply to demand.
2. Demand and Supply Balance: Achieved across all
production sites, constrained by available resources.
3. Scenario Planning and Selection: Optimized on key
metrics to produce a uni昀椀ed S&OP, focusing on service,
costs, and pro昀椀tability while minimizing inventory,
changeovers, and waste.
4. Dynamic Customer Allocation: Reserving machine
time for forecasted customers.
5. Execution Capability: Creating and managing a block
schedule to execute the chosen plan.
6. Real-Time Plan Updates: Adjusting the plan as market
and supply chain conditions change within the S&OP
period.
7. Detailed Inventory Planning: Advanced statistical
analysis for safety stock levels and automatic
replenishment orders.
8. Immediate Customer Response Capability:
Providing real-time stock availability or production
dates.
9. Accessible Analytics: Tailored analytics available to
all organizational levels.
These features can be adopted fully or gradually, depending
on priority needs. Ideally, these IBP features are managed within
one integrated system, ensuring seamless transitions from demandsupply balancing to scenario evaluation, then automatically to
production and inventory planning.
IBP Implementation Example – A Case Study
Implementing Integrated Business Planning (IBP) is a
challenging yet rewarding endeavor.
To illustrate this, let’s examine the IBP journey of the
RDM Group, the leading producer in the recycled cartonboard
business and the largest producer in Italy, France, the Netherlands,
Scandinavia, and in the Iberian Peninsula, with 10 mills and 4
sheeting centers across Europe.
Before IBP, the RDM Group faced challenges managing
cross-site supply chain operations and ef昀椀cient communication
among planning teams. The lack of visibility and consistent data
hindered quick, fact-based decision-making. Servicing multiple
countries, the Company struggled to balance demand and supply
effectively within and across its mills and regions.
50
Figure 5: (Above left) IBP Processes.
Figure 6: (Above) (Insert) Realtime inventory view with future
projection and warehouse 昀椀nished sheet products.
The initial integrated process proceeded slowly partly
because of the COVID pandemic and the acquisition of additional
companies, further complicating the manual process.
To overcome these challenges, the RDM Group sought an
integrated digital solution with speci昀椀c criteria:
•
Achieve optimal demand and supply balance, resulting
in a uni昀椀ed “one number” plan (S&OP).
•
Flexibly execute and re-optimize the production
schedule and inventory replenishment as orders,
forecasts, and operational conditions change between
S&OP cycles.
•
Integrate 昀椀nancial aspects into S&OP during what-if
scenarios to determine the optimal solution rather than
relying solely on operational metrics.
•
Employ the tool’s what-if capabilities for strategic
decisions, such as acquiring another mill.
The selected tool, in this case, I-Plan, transformed the
company’s planning process, enabling quick, accurate forecasts
and supply plans. It allowed the planning team to develop multiple
options and regularly select the optimal plan across operational and
昀椀nancial metrics in all S&OP cycles.
The tool proved invaluable when an unexpected 昀椀re shut
down one of their mills for a year. Production was reallocated to
other mills/machines in the group.
By addressing critical needs, the RDM Group fostered
collaboration across its operations, centering around a uni昀椀ed onenumber plan.
Implementation Challenges
The implementation process never comes without its
challenges. Still re昀氀ecting the previous case study, regarding
personnel, middle management planners and the staff across
various sites had a limited understanding of the project. Effective
change management was needed to alleviate their concerns,
allowing them to focus on implementation. The central S&OP team
also required extra staf昀椀ng to manage the increased workload.
Cross-functional collaboration is vital to establish a common
objective and build trust. However, as RDM Group experienced,
such collaboration is not often natural in an organization and
requires hard work to achieve a successful implementation. For
example, it was critical to plan to work side-by-side with 昀椀nance.
