Induscabos' transformation journey began with the recognition that its planning and scheduling processes had reached their limit. The complexity inherent in manufacturing electrical cables, combined with operational bottlenecks, created a scenario that prevented the company from reaching its full potential.

Scheduling the factory is a highly complex task, requiring perfect synchronization between multiple operations (wire drawing, stranding, extrusion, etc.) for more than 10,000 SKUs across more than 75 production lines. Factors such as optimizing setups to minimize capacity losses and the physical space constraint for storing in-process reels were challenges that manual planning could not effectively address.

At that time, without an adequate tool, medium- and long-term visibility was limited, making it difficult to make strategic decisions aligned with the S&OP cycle. As a result, the factory's adherence to what was scheduled was low, generating a scenario of chronic delays that reached more than 30 days, impacting customer trust.

The production order generation process was the operation's biggest bottleneck and the main symptom of inefficiency. With a need for 3,000 orders per month, the work cycle was unsustainable: every 10 days, a new batch of 1,000 orders had to be generated, a task that took the same 10 days of direct manual work by the PPCP manager (270 hours per month). Essentially, the manager spent all of his time performing this single activity, with no capacity to dedicate himself to strategic fronts of production management and control.

Faced with this scenario, Induscabos sought a solution that went beyond day-to-day planning. A robust system was essential, capable of modeling all the factory's constraints, optimizing scheduling, simulating scenarios quickly, and integrating with the PC Factory (MES) and Microsiga (ERP) systems, transforming the complexity of a problem into a competitive advantage.

Generating Production Orders was not a simple challenge; to ensure the solution's success it was essential to respect the characteristics and constraints inherent to the sector. It was necessary to navigate a complex bill of materials (BOM), with products that have more than 15 levels of semi-finished goods, and, at each of these levels, the system had to be able to intelligently select alternative materials based on user inputs.

Another crucial point was that the generation engine would need to simultaneously respect multiple policies, since the company operates both as Make-to-Stock (MTS) and Make-to-Order (MTO). This included considering multiple-lot policies for semi-finished goods and minimum stock levels for finished products (FPs).

Finally, the challenge of minimum lots had to be considered: any surplus of semi-finished goods generated to comply with minimum lots had to be automatically converted into finished-product orders, taking into account the current stock balance and what was already being planned by the generator itself in that calculation cycle.

To overcome its challenges, Induscabos sought a partnership that offered not just a technological solution, but specialized consulting. The choice fell on Siemens' Opcenter APS and NEO Digital Industries, which stood out for their expertise and alignment with the company's objectives.

During the first phase, Opcenter was modeled to translate the factory's complexity into a dynamic and visual digital environment. In this way, within minutes, the system is able to orchestrate the production flow from wire drawing (the start of the production route) to the formation of the finished product, minimizing the volume of in-process reels and respecting space constraints.

Another essential point of the project was the focus on setups, intelligently reducing die and color changeovers, decreasing total setup time and, consequently, the makespan of products, making better use of factory capacity.

Finally, with the proper work centers, production constraints, routings, and setups registered, the solution gave PPCP the ability to create and analyze multiple planning scenarios in less than 10 minutes, offering a medium- and long-term view essential for the S&OP cycle and for promising delivery deadlines with much greater accuracy.

After implementing Opcenter, Induscabos began to rely on NEO's support and continuous improvement service, the great differentiator of the partnership. More than reactive support, the NEO team acted proactively and propositively, analyzing Induscabos' new processes together with the client's team.

"When looking for a solution on the market, we had a list of requirements. NEO not only met all of them, but also added new elements that came to enhance the project, such as the integration with our MES [...]. The consulting and support service that followed is a benchmark of quality for us."— Josete Grigorio, IT Manager at Induscabos

During the continuous support follow-up, NEO identified a new and important improvement opportunity precisely in the bottleneck process of order generation, even before Induscabos itself perceived it as a potential automation point. Based on this proactive analysis, NEO proposed the development of its own customized solution to eliminate the bottleneck for good and unlock the strategic potential of the PPCP team.

The visibility and control provided by Opcenter APS directly tackled delivery delays, one of the most critical problems faced by Induscabos; the company went from a scenario with peaks of more than 30 days of delay to a new reality where no delay exceeds 10 days, ensuring greater reliability and customer satisfaction.

In addition, through production scheduling, it became possible to plan and simulate complex scenarios in less than 10 minutes. This agility gave Induscabos the confidence to embrace higher-value-added projects, resulting in a historic change in the company's profile: previously it worked exclusively with simple cables, and now 31% of production is dedicated to high-complexity cables (CTO/ETO). In this way, the company was able to reposition itself in the market, moving from a simple product portfolio to compete in a more profitable market, a strategy that would have been impossible to embrace with the previous methods.

The Order Generator developed by NEO brought a 98% reduction in the time dedicated to this demand. Before the project, the process of generating the 3,000 orders for the current month required about 270 hours of intense work by the PPCP manager. With the generator, this same volume came to be completed in just 4.5 hours, considering the complete generation and review cycle. The solution allowed the PPCP manager to be freed from a manual and repetitive task; his time is now dedicated to critical scenario analysis, production optimization, and continuous improvement.

All these gains were achieved while the complexity of the operation increased. Even with the growth in the product mix and the entry into CTO/ETO projects, the key OTD indicators and stock levels remained stable, proving the robustness and scalability of the implemented solution.

"Before the partnership with NEO, we faced delays of up to more than 30 days. Today, that reality has changed drastically. With Opcenter, we gained control that allows us not to exceed 10 days of delay, even with much more complex production. And with the order generator, what used to take 10 days of intense work by our PPCP manager is now resolved in 90 minutes. NEO didn't just deliver software to us; it gave us the tools to transform our operation and compete at a new level."— Leonardo Galvão, PPCP Manager at Induscabos

The partnership between Induscabos and NEO Digital Industries is proof of how technology, when applied strategically, becomes a catalyst for business transformation. The company not only solved its chronic challenges of delays and inefficiency, but used the new planning platform as a lever to reposition itself in the market, embracing complexity and reaching new levels of competitiveness.

With a robust, agile, and visual planning foundation, Induscabos now has the base it needs to continue its trajectory of growth and leadership. The company is more prepared than ever to pursue new challenges and solutions that add to its Digital Transformation journey.

As next steps, the company is implementing the nPlan solution, originated from a technology spin-off of NEO Digital Industries, which offers Supply Chain Planning solutions for advanced scenario planning, aiming to further optimize the company's inventory management.

"The partnership with NEO was fundamental in restructuring our PPCP processes. They not only implemented the tools, but helped us manage our flows and make faster decisions. The consulting and continuous support service is a benchmark of quality for us and gives us the confidence for the next steps."— Josete Grigorio, IT Manager at Induscabos