MSV Metal Studénka solves increasing complexity by application of APS Technologies

MSV Metal Studénka, a.s., manufacturer of drop forgings and subassemblies for the railway industry significantly reinforced and modernized its production capacities at the turn of 2008 and 2009. Big investment in the production devices however induces changes that increase the complexity of management of order processing procedure. In order to ensure optimum use of the new capacities the company decided to implement concurrently with the investments in the production equipment also the advanced planning project (APS). The partner for implementing the project has on the basis of tender win become the LOGIS company.

Studénka, 1/6/2009

The company MSV Metal Studénka, a.s. is a direct successor of Vagonka Studénka, which was established in 1900. Today, MSV is a leading European manufacturer supplying drop forgings, pressed pieces and subassemblies for railway and other industries. MSV Metal Studénka a.s. is a member of International Railway Systems S.A. seated in Luxembourg. Ing. Jaroslav Zajíc, CSc., the managing director and member of the Board of Directors comments on the advanced planning project as follows: “In several recent months we have been investing significant means in the extension of production capacities of the company. A series of operations we used to carry out in cooperation will now be realized by our own forces. The extension of production however brings about greater demands for its management and planning. Efficient coordination of the entire spectrum of production capacities of our company represents a very extensive task. We know that it will be the quality of production that will decide on how efficiently we can use the new equipment. In the interest of maximum evaluation of our investment we therefore decided to reinforce current system of management of the company by application of advanced planning system (APS). We expect it to increase the reliability of supplies to our customers as well as to return rapidly the investment into the production equipment. We decided to issue a tender for supply of the advanced planning system. We did it in spite of the fact that we were very satisfied with the products and services of LOGIS company that delivered the existing ERP information system to us. LOGIS is nowadays undoubtedly one of the most important suppliers of APS systems in the Czech Republic. We were however very well aware of the fact that the ERP and APS systems are completely different and that the positive experience obtained with the supplier of one tool do not necessarily have to predetermine his abilities to be a supplier of a different tool with the same quality. We were getting to know from other suppliers furthermore repeatedly that the APS solution of LOGIS company is top class, but too expensive. The result of our tender however proved that the i2 APS system by LOGIS is really the best solution, and, in the meantime, not the most expensive one. A series of suppliers was suggesting us in the course of tender proceedings to replace our existing ERP system with another one with the aim to improve the planning function. We refused this way in the very beginning though. We are satisfied with the existing ERP system FACTORY ES. The functions provided by this system in the area of corporate administration suit our needs. Based on the experience of other companies we also know that the replacement of ERP system in the area of planning and management does not lead to any remarkable improvements. The LOGIS company won the tender proceedings not only because of the extraordinarily efficient technology at favourable price, but also the quality of consulting services. The LOGIS specialists convinced us in the course of the tender not only with their knowledge of handling of the functional logic of the newly offered product, but also with their professional attitude to the analysis of the initial process of planning and concrete proposals for its improvement. Important role was played also by the fact that LOGIS is probably the only supplier in the entire central and eastern Europe specializing for a long time in the area of planning of order processing in the production enterprises and has been realizing most of its projects right in this area. LOGIS is also able to apply its solutions not only on the domestic market, but also abroad, and develops some specific solution components on its own. And this was also very important for our company, which is a member of an international group of companies IRS Group. Jaroslav Zajíc adds the following to the procedure and results of the project: “Professional approach of the LOGIS consultants and good orientation in the issues of management and planning of the production process they proved in the tender, was accompanying the entire system implementation. LOGIS was achieving above-standard results in this regard also in the past. This time it was no different. The biggest surprise for me however was the big progress in the project management methodology. Compared to the ERP system implementation LOGIS carried out more than ten years ago, we knew the schedule of the project up to the level of the individual activities, rights and duties of both contracting parties as well the detailed description of solution of above-standard situations already since the moment of signing of the contract. Thanks to the new management methodology the project was running smoothly and the goals were achieved. Now we can plan and management the production much more efficiently. We can specify the terms of order processing much more precisely and manage the stock of material and semi-finished products with much better overview and with higher precision degree. I expect these improvements to manifest soon also in the quantifiable parameters of the efficiency of the enterprise like the stock rotation, delivery performance or the length of transit production time.” The executive director of LOGIS Ing. Tomáš Vojtík comments on the project progress as follows: If we abstract from the requirements for technical solution of the project, we can state that the key factors of success of the project focused on the change of processes undoubtedly include the work of the project team and management support. It was a pleasure for me to participate in regular control days in the course of implementation. We could see how successfully the project team was coping with the pitfalls of the implementation like for example the tasks for data preparation, creation of planning model with regard to the bottlenecks of the MSV production process and change of long-time patterns in their routing activities. I am glad that our methodology and approach to implementation were accepted by the project team and management of MSV and used as a means to achieve the project goal.

About LOGIS

LOGIS is a supplier of expertise services and information technologies. The deliveries are executed in the form of projects aiming at improvement of management effectiveness and development of business success at the customers’ businesses. Within the framework of their solutions, LOGIS applies advanced managing and planning methods and procedures, including high-performance information technologies in the field of Supply Chain Management (SCM) and Advanced Planning and Scheduling (APS).