Download PDF
Fashioning a Transformation
Technology Category
- Functional Applications - Enterprise Resource Planning Systems (ERP)
Applicable Industries
- Apparel
Applicable Functions
- Discrete Manufacturing
- Sales & Marketing
Use Cases
- Demand Planning & Forecasting
- Supply Chain Visibility
Services
- System Integration
The Challenge
Lenzing Group, an Austria-based company that supplies high-quality specialty fibers to the global fashion industry, was facing a challenge. The company's botanic cellulose fibers, known for their innovative properties and reduced environmental impact, were in high demand. However, the company was struggling to connect demand forecasting, sales planning, and operations planning through digitalization. This lack of connection was creating inefficiencies in their end-to-end supply chain. The company sought a solution that would create an extremely accurate, efficient end-to-end supply chain.
About The Customer
Lenzing Group is a company based in Austria that supplies high-quality specialty fibers to the global fashion industry. The company's botanic cellulose fibers, which support the production of textile and nonwoven products, are known for their innovative properties, including a reduced environmental impact when compared to traditional materials. Lenzing Group operates on a worldwide scale, making its business model complex and demanding. The company has been in operation for 80 years, indicating a strong presence and reputation in the industry.
The Solution
To address this challenge, Lenzing partnered with Blue Yonder to implement Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP) across its production operations, as well as its sales, marketing, and finance activities. The goal was to create an extremely accurate end-to-end planning process that matches demand and supply very precisely while also minimizing inefficiencies and maximizing profitability. S&OP addresses these needs by taking a cross-functional approach to integrated business planning that unites all the moving parts across the supply chain with a shared focus to meet demand across markets, with an eye on both immediate and long-term strategic goals. This implementation represented the first step of a digital transformation for this 80-year-old business. Existing commercial tools, such as Excel spreadsheets, and manually intensive processes were replaced with a specialized solution built to manage the complexity of Lenzing’s worldwide business model.
Operational Impact
Related Case Studies.
Case Study
Fire Alarm System and Remote Monitoring Sytem
Fire alarm systems are essential in providing an early warning in the event of fire. They help to save lives and protect property whilst also fulfilling the needs of insurance companies and government departments.Fire alarm systems typically consist of several inter-linked components, such as smoke detectors, heat detector, carbon monoxide, manual call points, sounders, alarm and buzzer. The fire alarm system should give immediate information in order to prevent the fire spread and protect live and property.To get maximum protection a shoe manufacturer in Indonesia opted for a new fire alarm system to monitor 13 production sites spread over 160 hectars. Although the company had an existing fire alarm system, it could not be monitored remotely.It was essential that the new system would be able to be monitored from a central control room. It needed to be able to connect to the existing smoke detector and manual call point. Information should be easily collected and passed on to the Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system. Furthermore, the system should have several features such as alarm management, auto reporting, being connected to many client computers without additional cost, and run 24/7 without fails. The company also needed a system which could be implemented without changing the architecture of the existing fire alarm system.
Case Study
IoT Applications and Upgrades in Textile Plant
At any given time, the textile company’s manufacturing facility has up to 2,000 textile carts in use. These carts are pushed from room to room, carrying materials or semi-finished products. Previously, a paper with a hand-written description was attached to each cart. This traditional method of processing made product tracking extremely difficult. Additionally, making sure that every cart of materials or semi-finished products went to its correct processing work station was also a problem. Therefore, the company desired an intelligent solution for tracking assets at their factories. They also wanted a solution that would help them collect process data so they could improve their manufacturing efficiency.
Case Study
Retailer Uses RFID Scanner to Improve Efficiency
Patrizia Pepe wished to improve the logistics of their warehouse: accepting incoming goods from their production sites, movement of items throughout
the warehouse, and packaging of goods for distribution to the retail locations. They initially tried to use barcodes for this function. Because barcodes must be individually scanned within a line-of-sight, the acceptance of goods coming into the warehouse was too time consuming. Working with the University of Florence, Patrizia Pepe instituted a five-month pilot project beginning in August of 2009 to test the validity of an RFID solution. The pilot involved tagging of about 60,000 items for the second seasonal collection, and convinced the company to move forward with tagging all items.
Case Study
Monitoring and Controlling Automatic Mixing and Dispensing Machines
As technology advances, textile manufacturing has been transformed from a labor-intensive to a partially or fully automated industry. Automation is significant in all segments of textile production - from spinning to printing, and textile machinery manufacturers are constantly searching for new technologies and automation processes will increase the productivity of their machines. The color paste mixing and dispensing machine is an essential part of the printing and dyeing process. With the advantage of automatically computerized controls and database management, the system can significantly improve its dispensing precision, working efficiency and production quality as well as reducing material consumption.