CECAL faced several challenges in its production, the main one being production scheduling, which was carried out using several Excel spreadsheets. This scheduling model generated frequent delays that were not detected in advance, causing significant impacts on the production chain.

In addition, the company had been and continues to experience growing revenue, combined with new product lines, with a consequent increase in processes and labor, including new production areas and machinery, which generates greater complexity.

Faced with this scenario, the company decided to invest in an integration between departments, with the goal of reducing lead time and work in process (WIP), as well as increasing accuracy in delivery deadlines and production visibility. A bold initiative in an ETO industry with more than 17,000 SKUs and extensive product structures, which can reach up to 60 different items for the construction of a single part.

In addition, CECAL faced challenges related to PPCP processes with the factory, as changes occurred in the schedule throughout the week that generated a high amount of unplanned setup time and desynchronization in the delivery of purchased and cast raw material for production and final assembly. As a consequence of these challenges, delays were frequent, and the average lead time was 130 days.

To address these challenges, CECAL had to implement several changes in its production processes, investing in technology and automation, as well as strengthening communication between the company's departments. At this point, it partnered with Siemens and Neo for an OPCENTER APS implementation project focused on production scheduling.

During the pandemic, Cecal began a project to solve its production challenges. In September 2020, the Kick-Off was held for the development of the APS, which went live in May 2021. The APS was designed to serve the Lorena plant, focusing on changes in PPCP, Workshop and Casting.

To implement the solution, integrations were carried out with Cecal's other systems, the MES system and the Protheus ERP. The APS was deployed across all production sectors from machining onward, which are more standardized and rely on the stock of already-cast parts. Casting scheduling was therefore carried out on a pull basis, based on the scheduling of downstream processes. Thus, casting, which is a more manual process than the others (with parts of up to 15 tons), knows the sequence and quantity it must deliver to each downstream resource. The first weeks involved adjustments and adaptations to PPCP and production.

Customizations were designed to accommodate production constraints, including the analysis of raw material availability, the entry to and exit from the digital radiography bunker, the cooling time of welded parts (the next process can only begin after a minimum waiting period following welding), the time taken to move parts between the sheds and the identification of setups according to product families.

Over the past three years, due to its prestige in the market, the company has seen a significant increase in its revenue, recording a growth of 47%. In addition, the order backlog value also showed a significant leap, having increased by 360% over the same period.

Opcenter APS arrived at Cecal to enable this growth to occur with the least possible losses. In this sense, the reduction in lead time was a very positive gain, dropping from 130 to 80 days on average, allowing greater agility in product delivery and a better cash conversion cycle, a highly relevant aspect in ETO industries with high raw material costs. This result was made possible thanks to the new weekly scheduling with Opcenter APS, which also had its effort reduced from a week to just a day and a half.

With the new scheduling methodology, the company also gained greater reliability in the progress of production and greater accuracy in scheduling, which allowed the synchronization of component operations for assembly and the identification of bottlenecks in the short-to-medium term. This new way of scheduling also brought greater adherence and allowed a 50% reduction in the volume of cast parts stock.

Currently, casting only produces to meet the workshop's needs.

As for future prospects, Cecal seeks to bring long-term visibility to its scheduling, a difficult task currently underway, given that many components to be produced do not yet have a design or registration. The goal is to be able to see future plant occupancy over a horizon of more than a year, including simulations of orders that are still in the quotation phase. In addition, other improvements to handle situations in which casting becomes a bottleneck, as well as the limitation on advancing the scheduling of future demands, are topics being worked on by the Cecal and Neo teams, which continue together on this digitalization journey.

"With Opcenter APS, we have a clearer view of the shop floor. This allows the deadlines we provide to be more accurate and production management to be more organized."— Guilherme Lage, PPCP