Case of success Novolex

When restaurants, grocery stores or food providers change suddenly your plans, the leader in food packaging, Novolex, you must be ready to adapt.

But Violet Nedelcu, Director of Supply Chain Novolex®, I was struggling with the time it took to coordinate the multiple locations and the various systems of the company. “We had a gap too large between the sales plan and the production plan,” she says.

The company continued an annual planning cycle in which the sales team and operations completed sales forecasts, budgets, and needs for the next fiscal year. With multiple locations of plants and ERP systems, some sites reviewed the forecasts on a quarterly basis, some twice a year. In general, the process was long.

“It's really difficult to say if they were six weeks or three months, because it was different from one site to another,” says Nedelcu. “We did not have updated information to ensure that the sites were producing enough volume without producing inventory unnecessarily.” Nedelcu saw that the lack of updated data also affected the planning of raw materials, scheduling production plant, the capacity of the machinery and the logistics between the plants.

To address its challenges, Novolex began consolidating their various processes of prognosis in a single strategy. This model would serve as the basis for a coherent process of review, forecast and update. With this forecast unified, the company may be required to complete a plan of complete production on a monthly basis, projecting the inventory and planning other activities for the business and its suppliers. Then, the company needed a software solution to support the process, and a partner that would help to implement the solution successfully.

After evaluating possible solutions, Novolex you selected the solution IBM® Planning Analytics powered by TM1® because of its preparation for connecting the various systems of the company on a single platform. Novolex selected the software IBM Cognos® Analytics to provide monthly reports and weekly Protocol simple network management (SNMP) at the site level for engineering, marketing, sales and operations.

To implement the solution effectively, Novolex needed a partner that understands both the technology and the business. “It is very important that the developer understands the manufacturing and the business in general, to be able to work together with the business,” says Nedelcu. “Then, instead of getting a system where you need to adapt the business around it, you get a system that suits the needs of your business, one that makes sense for users”.

“The challenge was that the process of elaboration of budgets did not have a platform or a tool in which everyone had eyes on the same thing.”

“All sent versions of spreadsheets, and had to complete the numbers manually. Went through multiple iterations before they were able to budget and plan for the next year.”

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Delivering agility

With an implementation and adoption constant throughout the entire company, the new solution reduced the process of forecasting from six weeks to less than a week, a reduction of 83 %, even in the midst of the changes.

“One of our goals from the beginning was to address the capacity,” adds Nedelcu. "This year, we have been able to improve our position inventory in approximately 16 %". That means that the company can support the business with a 16 % less inventory than it was a year ago, something that is particularly notable in a year in which the turbulence in the food service has seen gains in supermarkets and losses in the restaurants.

“With this tool, we are very quick to assess where we have available capacity and to address the current needs of the market,” says Nedelcu. Instead of taking weeks, the company can now process data in a few hours, taking two days to analysis, discussion and review, and provide clarity on the capacity available to proceed with new products and support the current market.

“In addition, the sites have a consistent way of obtaining the information and know exactly what to build. Then, there are efficiencies in terms of building the right product, and have the inventory is correct on the floor,” says Nedelcu. “Having visibility means being able to make better business decisions and understand what is required from the perspective of capital investment. And we can give them that, that visibility of what is available and what we can or can't support”.

Nedelcu adds that “the ease of deployment, in phases, helped secure the participation of the users, it was not something scary. Converge has definitely done the easy way. We have received all the support that we needed.”

“I am a planner at heart,” says Nedelcu. “That is what I have done throughout my career, and I am very proud to implement something like this: get everyone in the business that he needed to give me their approval to continue on this journey.”

And when you embark on this journey analytics, the leader in food packaging managed to navigate this turbulent year with ease. Novolex you can now get a view timely and accurate of what is happening in a given time through the capabilities of descriptive analysis of IBM Cognos. IBM Cognos also produces analysis prescriptive, clear, and recommending the best course of action when faced with a dynamic demand.

Now, Novolex is taking the final step. Since the equipment of the supply chain Nedelcu has become the trusted authority of the company in metrics of forecast, the team plans to expand the system. The next phase would be to add predictive analytics that consider a broader range of factors, and provide prognostic most detailed and help clarify how the company should prepare for the future.

“The change happens every day, as we all know,” says Nedelcu. “But with the most recent pandemic, I can tell you that if we didn't have the new process and a system to support it, I would have been more difficult.”

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About Novolex

Novolex develops and manufactures packaging products and food service for multiple industries ranging from grocery, food packaging, restaurant and retail to medical applications and supplies of construction. With more than 10 000 families of employees, Novolex operates 61 manufacturing facilities and administrative offices in North America and Europe, including two installations of recycling of plastic films of world class.

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