Predictive Business Intelligence in Manufacturing

The digital transformation takes on different forms. Predictive Business Intelligence tools can represent the right starting point for a digital evolution process when a company, faced with significant growth, feels the need to streamline its processes.

In the manufacturing sector, adequate scalability of application tools is decisive in supporting the growth of results: the company that decided to rely on Lutech’s consultancy and services is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of copper and aluminum heat exchangers for wall-mounted domestic gas boilers.

The same company has chosen to diversify its business by entering the heat exchanger sector for various applications in the refrigeration industry. The expansion of its offering led to a foreseeable increase in production and turnover, which absolutely had to be supported.

Its production is based on the traceability of the raw materials, which leave the company as semi-finished products. The task of the IT infrastructure is, therefore, to support the business by monitoring the internal process and adequately supporting remote assistance to suppliers.

The growth recorded in the last few years has led to a new dimension of management control, creating the need to provide the company with a new information tool to replace the excessive number of Excel spreadsheets used by the various departmental functions.

The main objective shared with Lutech in this new course was to achieve full control of profitability by product line, measured by the contribution margin, as well as to monitor the impact on the operating result following the introduction of new lines and the expansion of existing ones.

After the necessary assessment and discussion of the client’s objectives, Lutech chose to base the project around the Infor LN d/EPM solution, specifically for Corporate Performance Management, and already successfully used in other application cases.

The project was multi-phase, with the aim of implementing a complete planning cycle (both annual and multi-year) with the following main characteristics:

• Use of an allin-one development platform consisting of a set of predefined modules.
• Involvement of the largest number of business functions with a bottomup approach.
• Creation of scenarios and whatif analysis (triggering an application event when a certain situation occurs).

The Infor LN d/EPM suite consists of three main tools. The Analytics module which provides comprehensive and detailed reports of the performance of business areas such as supply chain, production and sales. The Financial Performance Management module which is able to manage all budgeting, planning and forecasting needs through a single interface.

It also supports strategic initiatives, controlling the progress at a glance. Finally, Consolidation Central manages the closure of Financial Books, whether internal or statutory, in just a few days across the entire company, all over the world.

The results obtained with the implementation of the Infor LN d/EPM suite were quick to arrive. In particular, there has been a change in the corporate paradigm which, following the definition of appropriate KPIs, led to an increase in human capital focused on the concept of predictive analysis.

It was also possible to implement an application and cultural model, focused on Business Intelligence, together with the analysis of logistics, warehouse and production processes for maximum exploitation of margin and financial data.

Finally, it was possible to achieve integrated management of the entire process of budgeting, sales, purchasing, indirect costs, personnel costs and investments. The subsequent integration with the company’s ERP has also made it possible to integrate and standardize a complex sequence of procedures, which were previously carried out manually, making users totally autonomous.