Connecting locations with intelligent network planning
The customer
Holcim creates progress for people and the planet. As a global leader in innovative and sustainable construction solutions, Holcim enables greener cities, smarter infrastructure and higher living standards around the world. With sustainability at the heart of its strategy, Holcim is on its way to becoming a net-zero company, with its people and communities at the center of its success. As a global leader in recycling, the company is driving the circular economy to build more with less. Holcim is the company behind some of the world's most trusted brands in the construction sector, including ACC, Aggregate Industries, Ambuja Cement, Disensa, Firestone Building Products, Geocycle, Holcim and Lafarge. Holcim is 70,000 people around the world committed to the progress of people and the planet in four business areas: Cement, Ready-mix Concrete, Aggregates and Solutions and Products.
Goals at a glance
Supply and demand in balance
Low costs with a consistently high level of service
Make-or-buy decisions at a strategic level
Increased efficiency through capacity utilization
The project in detail
The aim of the project was to ensure the cost-optimized production and delivery of cement to end customers within a complex network of many international production and storage locations. The project team worked closely with various business units, including sales, production, logistics and finance, to take into account the real business challenges in the mathematical algorithm and achieve even more realistic optimization results.
The details of the project are explained below:
The goal
By using NetOp-OPTANO, the organization should be able to anticipate and respond to future challenges. This includes the correct evaluation of relevant options and the achievement of added value through appropriate network design.
This is intended to promote the company's ability to optimally plan all strategic and tactical options required for its business activities.
The challenges
Holcim is a customer-oriented company, which means that every customer should be supplied at the desired time and in the desired quantity and quality at the best possible price. Supply chain management is correspondingly complex and takes place at a national level. In a dynamic business environment with strongly fluctuating market demand, volatile raw material and energy costs, multi-level supply networks and unexpected machine failures, it is crucial to make optimal decisions for day-to-day business operations. Complex interrelationships and cross-dependencies must be taken into account in the planning process. The factors of planning quality and time are therefore of crucial importance.
The result
NetOp-OPTANO supports strategic decision-making processes with what-if scenarios related to the supply network. This makes it easier to determine the best supply model, the capacity utilization of production facilities and equipment and the best procurement alternatives. This solution enables the optimization of the supply network, taking into account production and logistics costs, sales prices, demand, capacity and constraints in production, storage and logistics.
Concrete successes through the use of NetOp-OPTANO are:
- Matching supply and demand to support the S&OP processes
- Cost reduction with the same level of customer service
- Reduction in inventories
- Optimal make-buy decisions
- Checking the footprint
Dr. Dominik Hollmann
Head of Production