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Produced in Germany September 2014

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About MultiProfilMultiProfil GmbH specializes in producing wrapped moldings and profiles, which are commonly used in items such as furniture. Based in the German town of Gütersloh, the company was founded in 1993 and employs 100 people.

To learn more about MultiProfil, visit: www.multiprofil.de

About ORCONOMYORCONOMY GmbH, an IBM Business Partner, specializes in providing end-to-end solutions to complex planning problems using advanced optimization technology. Founded in 2009, the company is based in Paderborn, Germany.

To learn more about products, services and solutions from ORCONOMY, visit: www.orconomy.de

For more informationTo learn more about how IBM can help you transform your business, please contact your IBM sales representative or IBM Business Partner.

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Fabrication & AssemblyLet’s Build A Smarter Planet

Ramping up capacityMultiProfil, a manufacturer that specializes in producing wrapped moldings and profiles for use in items such as furniture, needed to provide extra capacity to support its rapidly growing business. To this end, the company had invested in a new computer-operated sawing unit, which was designed to cut the large wooden panels it received from suppliers into the smaller components required for finished products.

The company soon discovered that the software that came with the sawing unit was not advanced enough to cope with its specialist manufacturing processes, which mostly use unusually long and narrow pieces of wood, forcing staff to create manual workarounds.

Marco Tölle, Head of Finance at MultiProfil, explains: “Raw materials are one of the key cost drivers for manufacturers, so even small savings translate into major cost avoidance. In their efforts to eliminate waste, employees were spending hours manually calculating the best ways to cut the wood to reduce off-cuts.

“Once the saw had done its work, employees had to walk long distances to rotate the huge wooden panels or remove them from the cutting table as they worked to generate the components needed for each customer order. This was extremely time-consuming, and threatened to become a bottleneck that would increase production times and jeopardize our ability to deliver products to customers on time.”

MultiProfil carves out a niche for manufacturing perfectionShaving off waste and saving staff time by optimizing and automating production processes

Smart is...Using cutting-edge optimization software to improve manufacturing processes, minimizing the waste and manual work involved in producing finished goods

Raw materials are one of the key cost drivers for manufacturers, so even small savings can translate into major cost avoidance and provide a clear competitive advantage. With sophisticated optimization software, MultiProfil can design cutting patterns that minimize unusable wood off-cuts and the amount of manual work required to produce finished goods, saving valuable time and money. The software also helps MultiProfil to calculate the most efficient way to transport raw materials and finished items within its manufacturing facilities, saving time and minimizing costs.

Fabrication & AssemblyLet’s Build A Smarter Planet

Cutting-edge optimization solutionFaced with these challenges, MultiProfil joined forces with ORCONOMY GmbH, an IBM Business Partner, and replaced its existing saw-operation software with a state-of-the-art solution based on IBM® ILOG® CPLEX® Optimization software.

“ORCONOMY offered us vendor-neutral advice, provided outstanding technical support throughout the implementation, and customized the IBM ILOG CPLEX Optimization software to meet the specific needs of our business, giving us brilliant end-to-end service,” remarks Marco Tölle.

The IBM and ORCONOMY solution automatically collects data on the company’s stock of raw materials, product designs, customer orders waiting to be fulfilled, operational constraints of the saw, and the availability of forklift trucks to transport the items within the manufacturing facilities. By collating and combining these factors, the solution optimizes key business processes involved in the manufacture, storage and delivery of products.

Staff can see how changes in the input variables affect factors such as wood consumption and transport costs, and use this information to adjust production processes for optimal outcomes.

Business benefits

• Reduces amount of wood used by 7 percent by minimizing unusable off-cuts, reducing raw materials wastage

• Slashes time spent calculating cutting patterns by 98 percent, enabling MultiProfil to reassign planning staff to more productive roles, although some manual adjustments to the plans are still needed

• Boosts capacity by optimizing transport of items within the manufacturing facilities, helping the firm avoid costly investments in extra resources even as output grows

Smarter Manufacturing Cutting down on raw material waste

Instrumented The solution captures data from production systems about available raw materials, product designs, and vehicles for transporting items within the manufacturing facilities.

Interconnected The tool calculates the most efficient ways for the forklift truck operators to transport raw materials within the manufacturing facilities, saving drivers time and cutting fuel costs.

Intelligent The software optimizes manufacturing processes to minimize waste and the amount of manual work required to produce finished goods, while optimizing internal logistics operations to cut costs.

Fabrication & AssemblyLet’s Build A Smarter Planet

Finding the key to less wastageBy cutting down on raw materials wastage, MultiProfil is unlocking huge savings and adopting a greener approach to manufacturing.

Marco Tölle elaborates: “In the past, it was simply too complex to manually work out the best cutting patterns to use to generate products for multiple orders at the same time, resulting in greater off-cuts than necessary. Now, because the software calculates this automatically, we can make even better use of the materials we purchase. As a result, we have reduced the amount of wood used by 7 percent, helping to cut costs and boost profitability.”

Unlocking time savingsThe highly sophisticated software allows MultiProfil’s staff to save time and work more productively.

“In the past, staff spent around two hours every day manually calculating cutting patterns,” recalls Marco Tölle. “The optimization software performs these calculations automatically, taking just two minutes – an acceleration of more than 98 percent. This huge time saving has enabled us to reassign staff from the planning team to more productive roles within the company.

“In addition, the improved cutting patterns have significantly reduced the need for manual adjustments to production plans, and workers no longer need to spend time walking great distances to rotate or move items. These time savings allow us to shorten production cycles and ensure that we deliver products to our customers quickly.”

Optimal use of logistics networkMultiProfil also uses the solution to calculate how best to transport raw materials and finished items within its manufacturing facilities to save time and minimize costs. Making optimal use of internal logistics equipment will help MultiProfil to postpone costly investments in additional forklift trucks as output grows.

Marco Tölle concludes: “Deploying the optimization solution from IBM and ORCONOMY enables us to conserve natural resources, cut costs, boost productivity and make the best possible use of our internal logistics equipment. The solution is helping us boost our production capacity without investing in additional resources – a key competitive advantage.”

“The optimization solution from IBM and ORCONOMY is helping us boost our production capacity without investing in additional resources – a key competitive advantage.”

— Marco Tölle, Head of Finance, MultiProfil

Solution componentsSoftware• IBM® ILOG® CPLEX® Optimization

software

IBM Business Partner• ORCONOMY