The Challenge
Hitchen Foods were doing their planning and scheduling from cumbersome and time consuming excel spreadsheets which meant that there was very little communication between departments. This is turn would lead to each department prioritising its own work before considering the needs of the other area. So the main problem was lack of overall production visibility.
The Solution
Due to senior people in their business having previous experience with Preactor, it was quickly decided that this was the best solution to tackle the problems that Hitchen were encountering on a daily basis. It was decided to implement it in two phases, first being finished products and the packing lines. The planning office now take the orders and make decisions as to what the production plan should be for that week, giving focus to one point.
The Benefits
Much better visibility with regards to planning issues.
Improved communication between departments
Greater overall visibility and knowledge in terms of their everyday shop floor processes.
Quotation
“Preactor has become an integral part of our business, particularly from a planning point of view. We have in place a software system that bring us major benefits in terms of production efficiency, seamless visibility of data and overall cost and time effectiveness.”