Optimization of the European production network through a new sales planning process

Lucart, a force in Europe

Lucart Group is a company known worldwide. It produces approximately 395,000 tons of paper per year through 12 machines that are constantly in operation and 65 converting lines. Today, Lucart employs over 1,600 employees and is positioned in the European landscape as the largest producer of MG paper for flexible packaging, one of the main producers of paper and tissue products, and Airlaid products.The group’s consolidated turnover exceeds 500 million 
euros

395.000 tons

Tons of Production capability

€515+ mln

Revenues

1.600+

People

Lack of traceability

Originally, Lucart had always relied on MS Excel to monitor its commercial users in Europe and the central users of the Supply Chain department. However, the effort required by the tool was so immense that each user had to manually align their respective files every month. There was no single process capable of involving users from all companies; instead, each of them proceeded “off-system,” using independently developed layouts, making it very difficult and complex to control the progress of the entire process.

Maintaining individual records and the amount of data analyzed was indeed cumbersome and of little added value. The absence of a more suitable tracking tool and a more structured process also created many versions of the same Excel files with obvious traceability and data comparability issues.

The process that was followed, therefore, highlighted the following limits:

• Lack of product phasing management
• Lack of statistical engine and automatic proposal
• No calculation of intercompany/internal transfers
• Unmeasurable forecast accuracy

Lucart thus had the need to implement tools and processes internally that could support the monthly sales and supply demand planning activities.

The current process, unlike the previous structure, is organized as follows:

• Master data and data are automatically aligned every night.
• Every month, commercial users, each for their area of responsibility (in terms of brand/market), plan for 
  the following months, within a typical limit of 6 rolling months. The existence of a statistical calculation engine, 
  in conjunction with the management of the product life cycle (phasing), allows the generation and use of an 
  automatic proposal that facilitates and speeds up the work of trade.
• After the certification of the completion of the above-mentioned activities, the central users of the supply 
  chain distribute the sales demand to the warehouses and then to the production lines of each plant, crossing 
  the needs with the existing stock. The use of some ad-hoc reports facilitates the evaluation of the production 
  load on the plants and allows for better management of exceptions.
• Export of planning to the ERP.
• The system automatically generates transfers between warehouses based on the crossed needs and allows for conversion of data into multiple units of measure.

The integration of the above-described process into a single tool has allowed for numerous benefits that were 
previously impossible to achieve. Among these, the main ones are:

• A single and shared process with all involved users.
• Complete and automatic integration between CCH Tagetik and upstream and downstream systems.
• Planning for sales managers, product, customer, on a rolling horizon, and allocation to production lines.
• Calculation of intercompany ratios.
• Conversion into multiple units of measure.
• Management of the product life cycle (phase-in and phase-out).
• Statistical calculation engine with best-fit

“Thanks to this project, Lucart has finally equipped itself with a demand planning system that allows for an optimization of the entire supply chain: starting from greater accuracy in sales forecasts to better planning of production and stocks. The contribution of AKC, not only as a system integrator on CCH Tagetik but above all as a partner on process aspects, has been fundamental in creating a valuable solution for Lucart.”

Roberto Vigolo
Intelligence Services Manager at Lucart

2021

The AKC project

The project with Lucart Group began in November 2020 when, as a first step, it was necessary to identify a group of so-called Key-Users, thanks to whom it was possible to start the requirements analysis phase, which ended at the end of the year with the release of the Business Blueprint documentation. Once this documentation was refined and shared, the phase of developing the model on the Tagetik platform began. In March 2021, the test application was released, and user training and fine-tuning began, making the system ready for go-live in May 2021.

At the end of the project, the results obtained were:

• Reduction in learning times for all users
• Reduction in contribution and processing times
• Integration of all data into a single system, with the ability to easily extract data to Excel
• Comparison between forecast data (Budget and Sales Demand) and actual data
• Traceability and verifiability of data.

Benefits and Future Plans

Thanks to the implementation of a new tool capable of managing the aggregation of data from multiple sources, Lucart Group has been able to benefit from many of the new features introduced with the Sales Demand Planning process. First of all, it is worth noting that the introduction of the Sales Planning process has been integrated with that of Demand and Supply Chain Planning. In addition to this, it has been possible to introduce 7 new statistical algorithms, a best-fit evaluation for company, business unit, and finally item, and better forecast accuracy not only for company, business unit, and item but also for top clients. The Sales Planning process has allowed for the management of the entire life cycle of items, and it has been possible to calculate intercompany and warehouse transfers. Today, Lucart Group can finally benefit from real-time simulation based on sales forecasts, open orders, and stock.

Recap:

• 7 statistical algorithms and a best-fit evaluation for company, business unit, and item
• Forecast accuracy calculated for company, business unit, item, and top customer
• Management of the life cycle of items
• Calculation of intercompany and warehouse transfers
• Real-time simulation based on sales forecasts, open orders, and stock
• Integration of the sales planning process with demand and supply chain planning

The project did not end here. In the future of the Lucart Group, further phases of project development are planned with the aim of expanding and optimizing what has been developed so far. The next steps include the following:

• Fine-tuning of statistics and measurement of accuracy improvement
• Analysis of downstream processes within the Sales & Operations Planning area
• Introduction of financial profitability linked to the Sales Demand process