Between 2013 and 2014, Haco invested to update, enhance, and expand the use of Preactor, a tool the company had owned for many years but whose use had been limited. The project focused on the weaving and finishing plants at the headquarters in Blumenau/SC and the graphic manufacturing unit in Massaranduba/SC. The project lasted 6 months, had no significant delays, and continues to incorporate improvements with NEO's support.

The solution runs fully integrated with Wintree, an ERP system specialized in the textile sector, updating all information in less than 5 minutes. The routine begins with resource sizing across all manufacturing units (headquarters and branches); production orders are then generated and the integration is run to update Preactor according to what is actually happening on the factory floor. After a brief briefing on points of attention, the automatic scheduling rule is run, which executes in less than 5 minutes.

Through Preactor, Haco can generate multiple simulation scenarios that make it possible to decide the best alternative, taking into account the level of customer service and the optimization of factory capacity. All constraints are considered: process, production resources, the best setup sequence, and labor, among others.

“Through the Gantt Chart we can see the schedule with a great wealth of detail, assessing how the various relevant product characteristics affect production.”— Gustavo Figueiredo, Production Scheduler and Preactor Key User

The project's outcome brought significant and tangible gains in terms of setup reduction, increased productivity, and accuracy in delivery date commitments. With the intelligent sequencing generated automatically from the setup matrices, Haco managed to gain up to one hour per day on each machine, about 5% in productivity, in addition to running delivery date simulations far more quickly and accurately.

“Preactor allows us to clearly see the dynamic bottlenecks in our process and act directly to make better use of the factory's resources.”— Luciano Mondini, Industrial Director

“With the tool, we achieved an adherence rate above 95% between planned and actual scheduling. This performance proves the success of the implementation!”— Dulce Bruns, PCP Manager

Looking ahead, the plans are for continuous improvement of the current solution and for expansion. According to Luciano Mondini, Haco wants to extend the use of Preactor to all business units and branches, connecting all factories into a consolidated view and improving logistics and the management of production bottlenecks.