MAN Energy Solutions Schweiz AG

APS waySuite for production planning at MAN Energy Solutions

MAN Energy Solutions represents the advancement, engineering, manufacturing, distribution, and maintenance of state-of-the-art compression systems. Beyond providing systems for the energy and chemical sectors, the company is also recognized for its groundbreaking work, including the development of the world’s most lauded heat pump located in Esbjerg. A significant challenge in production planning is the absence of mass production, necessitating the coordination of numerous bespoke processes.

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MAN Energy Solution Zuerich Production planning APS System waySuite

APS waySuite User MAN Energy Solutions: Production planning is now also AI-optimized

MAN Energy Solutions stands for the development, design, production, sales, and service of high-tech compression systems. In addition to systems for the power and chemical industries, the company’s achievements include innovations such as the world’s most acclaimed heat pump in Esbjerg, Denmark. The challenge for production planning: No series production, but rather many individual processes. For more than a decade, the company has been using valantic’s advanced planning and scheduling (APS) system wayRTS. Thanks to IT-supported planning processes along the entire value chain – quotation, project management, engineering, production planning, procurement, HR planning, scheduling, supplier tracking, testing, and assembly – MAN Energy Solutions achieves exceptionally high on-time delivery rates.

Mockup valantic Reference Production planning MAN Energy Solutions

Case Study: APS waySuite for production planning at MAN Energy Solutions

Read in success story how MAN Energy Solutions is using valantic’s APS software waySuite to plan projects and production – with great success.

After supply chain problems: Search for further optimization possibilities

Supply chain problems necessitated a lot of replanning. The supply chain managers at MAN and valantic Supply Chain Excellence’s process and IT consultants therefore worked together to seek further optimization possibilities.

Three follow-up projects further improved production planning processes:

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AI-based automation of planning tasks
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Workforce management with the wayWFM tool
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Supplier cooperation with the wayCloud Platform

Michael Budimir
Head of Bid & Order Planning, MAN Energy Solutions Schweiz AG

”We have a large number of people, departments, and external partners involved in one product over a long period of time. Planning is complex, and deviations such as as non-conformities, late deliveries or overstock or understock must be detected early and resolved quickly. The automatic optimization function significantly reduces the work we have to do.“

Automatically find and simulate solutions

Real-time simulation has always been the namesake strength of wayRTS. It provides the ability to see instantly how actions affect backlogs, capacity bottlenecks, and inventory. Despite this important decision-making aid, planning at MAN Energy Solutions still required a lot of work. Therefore, another function of APS waySuite was introduced: AI-based automation of planning tasks. SCM managers see great potential here, especially with regard to optimizing scenario simulations. valantic in cooperation with MAN therefore trained the AI in such a way that it correctly implements priorities for various planning horizons at MAN Energy Solutions. For example, the algorithms may overbook with varying amounts of capacity, depending on how far deadlines lie in the future. The software provides the user with comprehensible suggestions and recognizes, for example, whether the increase in capacity through additional layers will also help optimize things.

This is how AI-based automation helps MAN Energy Solutions:

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Fast, detailed simulations that enable informed make-or-buy decisions
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Automatic clearing of backlogs
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Recalculation of supply networks in a few minutes
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Whitebox approach: The comprehensibility of AI suggestions increases confidence in automation as the system continues to learn

Production planning and manufacturing at MAN Energy Solutions in Zuerich, valantic Reference waySuite

valantic's solution for HR capacity planning: wayWFM

When planning production capacities, MAN Energy Solutions had a weak point: Capacity planning for the availability of machines worked in principle, but it was always the case that their operation was not guaranteed at all since the planners did not have access to HR capacities. It turned out to be complex to plan with the necessary personnel because employees had different qualifications, working hours, overtime accounts, labor law requirements, vacation planning, continuing education, and sick leave. MAN Energy Solutions therefore introduced the wayWFM HR management tool at its plants in Zurich, Oberhausen, and Berlin. This waySuite component has interfaces to ERP and human resources (HR) software systems from which master data and information about the personnel to be deployed can be drawn. It receives capacity requirements for the workstations from wayRTS and automatically plans the personnel deployment based on this information. This way, qualifications, absences, and substitution rules are taken into account.

The benefits of staffing with wayWFM

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People are at the heart of capacity planning
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Scheduling of orders shows the utilization of the individual areas’ labor pools
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Complexity for supervisors and masters can be reduced
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Better knowledge of capacities improves on-time delivery

Fabian Strässle
Supply Chain Planner, MAN Energy Solutions Schweiz AG

”Thanks to forward-looking and realistic planning, we not only improve our reliability with regard to delivery dates, but also increase our employee satisfaction.“

wayCloud Platform collaboration platform

The latest project at MAN Energy Solutions was to set up the valantic wayCloud Platform. It will share information from the planning system with external partners. The supplier portal for more than 1,000 suppliers unifies communication and improves transparency. Direct reporting of requirements and feedback on quantities and deadlines makes it easier to integrate information into digital planning. Monitoring of dependent orders for pre-products and central communication of milestones for particularly complex products has further increased transparency in the supply chain.

Velemir Stjepanovic
Supply Chain Planner, MAN Energy Solutions Schweiz AG

”The needs analysis in wayRTS enables us to use resources better and in more sophisticated fashion and to optimize procurement processes, now also taking external partners directly into account. And by monitoring processing times and wait times, we have an early warning system with proactive disturbance quantity management. This makes our agile planning processes so effective.“

About MAN Energy Solutions

MAN Energy Solutions is paving the way to a climate-neutral global economy. Whether industrial production, energy or maritime economy: MAN thinks holistically and tackle tomorrow’s challenges today – for sustainable value creation for the customers. The technology portfolio incorporates the experience of over 250 years of engineering tradition. MAN Energy Solutions is headquartered in Germany and employs around 14,000 people at more than 120 locations worldwide. MAN’s customers also benefit from the global service center network of our after-sales brand, MAN PrimeServ.

www.man-es.com

Production planning and working with valantic waySuite / wayRTS at MAN Energy Solutions in Zuerich

Success story APS waySuite for production planning at MAN Energy Solutions

Read in our case study how MAN Energy Solutions is using valantic’s APS software waySuite to plan projects and production – with great success.

Your Contact

Anne Wiegert

Senior Manager Marketing & Communications
valantic Supply Chain Excellence

+49 89 578399-0