Case study: Camunacavi
Industrial cable manufacturer
How Camunacavi was able to cut on late orders, anticipate disturbances, manage rush orders and considerably improve service levels.
The Company
Camunacavi is a company perched in between snowy mountain peaks near Switzerland in Northern Italy. They produce industrial cables for industries like offshore, water treatment, power plants, etc.
Their cables are designed and manufactured to meet very specific requirements: resistant to water pressure, fire, and even mouse bites. The cables are assembled in order to meet their customers’ specific requirements.
The Challenge
The production chain at Camunacavi is complex. When cables enter the chain, they are quite similar. As they move forward, they change and differentiate more and more in order to comply with various customers’ demands in lengths, materials, properties, etc. It thus becomes more difficult to distinguish cables from one another.
Before using frePPLe, the production was planned on a 5-meter whiteboard pinned on the factory wall. Planners were constantly (re)moving post-its, crossing out entire lines with red pencils, and manually adjusting workflows when disturbances arose.
And they often did: rush orders, mistakes at bottlenecks, machines breakdowns… all these factors combined could lead to a significant decline in efficiency, causing unfortunate delays in production and delivery.
From there, things can escalate quickly. Paolo Giacomelli, Production Planning Manager, explains: “If you rush to manage the emergencies, you lose focus on your priorities. If you stay focused on your priorities, there is no way you can deal with the emergencies.”
The Solution
Implementing frePPLe resulted in a tremendous rise in efficiency for Camunacavi. “Our service level is already above 85%”, says Giacomelli, “with frePPLe we are confident that we can reach 98%”.
The cables production planning is now fully automated. Planners can automatically allocate resources depending on overtimes and availabilities. A problem occurs on a sunny Sunday afternoon when all the workers are out picnicking in the mountains? With frePPLe, this is no longer a big deal: a few clicks allow you to reallocate resources and adjust your plan for the week ahead in seconds.
Sometimes, Camunacavi receives last-minute orders. Some customers have a strict timing to respect and they are willing to pay an emergency fee. Paolo Giacomelli recalls: “Before using frePPLe, we would make a bet on the outcome and a disaster would occur. Now, I’m able to make sound decisions and turn down a rush order based on data and planning visualization tools provided by frePPLe.”
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