Leuze electronic no longer optimizes its purchasing and production decisions with ERP as in the past, but on the basis of the Advanced Planning & Scheduling (APS) tool DISKOVER from SCT. This provides much more accurate sales forecasts. Leuze electronic is not only impressed by the sophisticated rule sets and scheduling algorithms; working with the tool is also straightforward and extremely convenient. Management consultancy Abels & Kemmner supported the implementation.

Leuze electronic is a specialist manufacturer and provider of measuring and switching sensors, image processing and data transmission solutions, as well as components and systems. More than 1200 Sensor People at 24 locations worldwide are employed in development, production, sales and service, supported by more than 40 sales partners worldwide.

Creating a link between inventory planning and delivery reliabilityLookingto optimize its high delivery readiness still further without tying up too much capital in inventories, Leuze was searching for a way to make its inventory planning more transparent in relation to the required delivery reliability. Such transparency is necessary to be able to make more informed decisions about how to adjust the degree of delivery readiness, also from a capital point of view. This is essential for sound business planning, opening up the ability to view and control inventories also from an overall enterprise perspective in line with relevant KPIs. The previously used ERP system was not fully fit for that purpose. It provided comparatively basic forecasting procedures that made it possible to establish current levels of delivery readiness and to set defaults, for example at least 95%. However, it was not possible to transparently show which materials had to be kept in stock, and in which quantities, to guarantee this readiness.

By Michael Schüler, Leuze electronic, and Dr. Bernd Reineke, Abels & Kemmner

This article was published online and you will find the full text here!