Reducing master production plan, material requirements planning and scheduling cycle times from hours to 10 minutes

Enhancing the Brazilian agricultural industry

Coamo is an agro-industrial cooperative committed to sustainably developing and progressing the region where it operates. In addition to supplying inputs and receiving agricultural production of its cooperatives, the company offers technical assistance and modern infrastructure to facilitate field activities, consolidating itself as a partner to rural producers. With over 53 years of excellence and commitment to quality, Coamo is constantly seeking technological innovations and management strategies to maintain its leading position in the agricultural market.

Coamo aims to create value for its cooperatives and sustainably develop fieldwork, from aiding in implementing crops to commercializing generated products, including industrialization. This is the company’s vocation and where it has been making strong investments in expanding and updating its manufacturing plants.

To keep up with innovation and overcome various challenges that arise, Coamo teamed up with Lean Scheduling Brazil (LSB), a Siemens Digital Industries Software partner, and integrated Opcenter™ Advanced Planning and Scheduling (APS) software. Opcenter is part of the Siemens Xcelerator business platform of software, hardware and services.

Planning and scheduling from scratch

One of the most significant challenges Coamo faced was developing a planning and scheduling solution alongside physically constructing its new feed mill. This was complex because there was no current production scheduling model as a reference for this new business. The factory was starting from scratch, hiring people to develop production processes. This lack of reference represented a considerable challenge, requiring a carefully planned approach and a highly adaptable solution to ensure efficiency and operational success.

Additionally, Coamo urgently needed to balance projected demand with installed capacity, maximize the use of available resources and ensure synchronization of production processes. Without an established scheduling system, the company had to deal with uncertainty and the complexity of managing a new production plant. Thus, the company was highly pressured to establish effective and integrated planning since it would directly impact its ability to meet demands quickly and efficiently.

In many of the cooperative’s plants, managing stocks in storage silos is complex during feed production. Historically, it is common for agribusiness industries to struggle with this aspect, seeking to ensure continuous production flow and avoid input losses due to expiration or needing to free up silo space.

Selecting Opcenter APS to improve planning and scheduling

To address these challenges, Coamo implemented an advanced production planning, scheduling and control (PPC) solution in partnership with LSB, using the Opcenter APS ultimate version. These integrated tools enabled a multilevel approach to planning, scheduling and production control, establishing a direct connection with the enterprise resource planning (ERP) uniface.

This solution consists of three stages: finite production planning, material requirements calculation and detailed production scheduling. In the first stage, Coamo uses Opcenter Planning, which is part of Opcenter APS, to create a master production plan (MPS) with finite capacity, analyzing each level and returning validations for finished products. This solution is differentiated by its level of automation and accuracy, as constraints can vary depending on the production mix.

Further, the planning solution performs the material requirements planning (MRP), which LSB developed and customized, from the calculated MPS, validating production capacities of the entire production chain and considering stock coverage policies. Then, the company executes the material calculation engine (MRP) to generate planned purchase and production orders, significantly speeding up the process to about 5 minutes with user interactions.

Achieving detailed production scheduling

Subsequently, Coamo uses Opcenter Scheduling for fine production scheduling, guided by the just-in-time (JIT) concept. To ensure continuous production delivery and efficient use of storage silos, the company developed an advanced sequencing rule. This rule aims to avoid production interruptions, minimize material losses and optimize setups on essential factory resources. Additionally, the rule strictly respects the necessary synchronization for transferring inputs between operations, ensuring a harmonious and effective flow in all production process stages.

Integrating with ERP

Finally, all the information consolidated and developed throughout the planning and production processes feed back into the ERP. This provides a holistic, real-time view of the entire production process, enabling agile and accurate strategic decision-making. This integration significantly enhances operational efficiency and positions the PPC as a key player within the organization, providing vital support to the essential areas of production, purchasing, logistics, shipping and sales.

Reducing planning time

After implementing the advanced PPC solution at Coamo’s new feed mill, the results were significant and impactful across several areas of the operation. The improved synchronization of production processes substantially reduced planning and scheduling time, significantly streamlining the entire MPS cycle, material requirements calculation (MRP) and fine production scheduling. Coamo can now complete this process in about 10 minutes, which could take hours with other models to analyze multiple scenario analyses involving variations in demand, sequencing and materials. Thus, it optimized resource utilization and maximized PPC operational efficiency.

Additionally, implementing these solutions provided the support and security necessary for the new feed mill’s startup, offering vital information to the production, purchasing, logistics, shipping and commercial departments. Full integration with the ERP established a solid foundation for strategic decision-making. The detailed analyses Opcenter APS generates illuminated Coamo’s daily operations, providing valuable insights and ensuring efficient process execution.

Further, applying these solutions significantly improved process quality, improving consistency and uniformity. Meeting market demands more efficiently and timely also contributed to strengthening the company’s competitiveness in this new segment and creating a solid foundation for Coamo’s sustainable growth and continued success in the agro-industrial market.

Achieving milestones thanks to dynamic partnerships

Implementing these advanced PPC solutions at Coamo’s new feed mill represents an operational achievement and is a partnership and excellence milestone in project management, as Coamo had already tried implementing other PPC technology solutions without the expected success. LSB’s commitment to providing technical support and specialized consulting was crucial to the success of the venture.

“We are pleased with the partnership and with the intense, participative and engaged approach the LSB team demonstrated throughout the project,” says Ademir Gonçalvez, administrative manager and project manager at Coamo. “From providing tutorials to offering timely support, they consistently gave the Coamo PPC team necessary assistance, which resulted in a high level of knowledge among our users.”

The unique experience of integrating Opcenter APS reflects the mutual commitment to quality and excellence. The involvement of Coamo’s PPC, information technology (IT) and production teams, combined with the high technical level of LSB’s project team, resulted in a robust and adaptable tool capable of supporting the challenges of the new production chain. The next step for Coamo is to consolidate the tool’s use and expand its application to other industrial businesses of the cooperative.

Leveraging Opcenter has played a crucial role in optimizing planning and decisionmaking, allowing Coamo to meet the growing industry demand precisely and efficiently.

“Using Opcenter APS exceeded our expectations, demonstrating its practical effectiveness and establishing itself as a key element for the cooperative’s operational success,” says Pablo Jandrey, PPC coordinator at Coamo. ‘‘With the growing demand in the industry to produce more with less, and the need for fast and accurate decision-making, leveraging a good tool like Opcenter APS plays a crucial role in this process.”

“Implementing Opcenter APS came at an important time for us, enabling efficient production planning and contributing to the growth and quality of operations,” says Matheus Nascimento, PPC analyst at Coamo. “With the combination of a robust tool and the expertise of the consulting team, Coamo is ready to face market challenges and continue its successful trajectory in the agro-industrial sector.”

“When we look back to a not-so-distant past, I can only imagine how long it used to take us to try to make better choices before integrating Opcenter APS,” says Jandrey. “Today, we have taken an important step toward achieving this goal.”