Opcenter (Preactor) APS

The Metallurgical Flantech Ltda, founded in 2005, in the city of Caxias do Sul, Brazil is 130km from Porto Alegre, and is focused mainly on the production of exhaust system components for the automotive industry. Currently, the company has 10 employees, and their specialty is the production of large diameter special stainless steel short pipes and tube.

Its products are delivered to major suppliers linked to car manufacturers from the center of the Brazil, and also, more recently, outside the country. The components manufactured by Flantech can be found on brands, such as Volkswagen, Ford, Peugeot, Renault, Citröen, and General Motors.

Flantech stands out in the market due to its reliability and flexibility, which are obtained through a lean structure, capable of offering fast turn round to market demands in a quick and efficient manner. Currently, it has achieved the Quality Management System Certificate ISO 9001:2008, and it is in the planning phase of the implementation of ISO TS 16949.


The Challenge

Flantech needed to use a tool that would allow them to differentiate themselves in the market in two ways, reliability and flexibility.   To do this they needed to go beyond tangible aspects such as product quality, and focus on the intangible aspects, such as rapid response to changes that occur in demand ensuring on-time delivery at short notice and minimizing the inventory of the supply chain, allowing it to be seen as a flexible company in response to these demands.

Additionally, Flantech was looking for a finite scheduling solution not only to be able to meet the current needs, but also one that could contribute and support the growth of the company.

Vicente Fadanelli, Director of Metallurgical Flantech, commented.   “The concern of the company is to secure the way for an organized and orderly growth, within a planned production environment, minimizing the risk of occurrence of problems from growth without planning.”

The Solution

The software was supplied by ACCERA Supply Chain Solutions, a Preactor Partner in Brazil. The deployment was conducted directly by Flantech, and relied only on ACCERA’s guidelines. The process was led in a very simple and fast way. In just 3 days of work, the team of consultants from ACCERA completed the configuration of model, installation of the software in the enterprise environment and training.  During the second week, Preactor was already mirroring the reality of the factory and guiding the planning of all production.

As a small company all employees were involved during the implementation of Preactor. Each of the production resources is considered in schedule including machines, operators and their specialties are treated as constraints.

Flantech uses Preactor 300 FCS (Opcenter Professional) stand alone as it, cannot yet justify the deployment of an ERP system. Thus, Preactor works independently, having all entries, generation of orders, and production notes fed directly into the system.

Results

After the deployment of Preactor, the company saw a greater integration and interaction between planning and execution of daily activities. Furthermore, the planning for purchase of materials was also benefited by the use of a delivery system, because it allows a better delivery profile, at the right time, to initiate the production process.

Vicente also highlighted the speed and ease of use of the software, and commented that the current rates of delivery reliability, productivity and accuracy in the purchase of raw materials is only possible through effective planning and scheduling that Flantech gets from Preactor. “The expectations with the use of Preactor were exceeded. We believe that the whole company is benefiting from the use of the system, but mostly our customers, who find faster responses to their demands.”

According to Cristhiano Faé, Executive Director of ACCERA, “Flantech is an example to be followed as a company that has a prospective vision of the business and knows how to use the technology in their favor, to obtain higher levels of competitiveness.”

Vicente Fadanelli again. “Preactor is part of a larger context than the mere planning of production in Flantech. The system is part of the strategic objectives for a sustainable growth of our company, and to seek recognition from the market because of our operational excellence. We recommend Preactor to any company that requires intelligent coordination of production processes, regardless of their size or line of activity.”