Broner Metals Solutions, a provider of supply chain planning, scheduling and MES systems for the metals industry, has announced that Nisshin Steel has gone live with its Production Planning and Scheduling system for the production of ordinary and special steels. Nisshin Steel, a Japan-based producer of special steels, uses Broner Production Planner and Production Scheduler solutions to improve on-time delivery and reduce delivery times by co-ordinating planning and scheduling across five widely distributed plants. Nisshin uses a distributed production approach with steel often moving through several plants after the initial steelmaking, casting, hot-rolling processes and steel refine process. Previously each plant was managed as a separate entity, with separate sales orders and works orders being raised for each plant, resulting in lengthy planning lead times. It used to take six business days of lead time to unify sales and works orders. Now, with Broner Production Planner and Production Scheduler, there is just a single planning process that considers all of the plants within an integrated planning cycle with a daily update. The Broner Production Planner optimises and balances the flow of material through the supply chain, taking into account inventories, equipment capacities, production cycles and process restrictions, to create the plan for the short to medium term that is based on actual and forecast demand. This leads to a more agile and responsive supply chain that improves customer service.
