The Problem

A small confectionary manufacturer was unable to keep up with demand and satisfy customer needs due to continuously reactive production planning. They also faced frequent unplanned downtime of production equipment leading to lower overall yield and under-utilization of staff.

Our Recommendations

• Improve sales forecasting by adjusting demand bi-weekly based on actual sales orders
• Utilize order fulfillment history, variances between actual sales and forecasts, and client lifetime value parameters (volume, profit, loyalty) when cutting production orders from the schedule
• Integrate order management, demand planning and manufacturing execution systems to enable recommendations above. Eliminate redundant tasks and automate them
• Track sensor data to baseline production line performance, perform root cause analysis and apply corrective measures to improve equipment uptime
• Create reports and dashboards to track and analyze order fulfillment, production schedules, throughput and equipment availability