Global industrial giant Valmet relies on Delfoi Planner for its production planning
Valmet is the world’s leading supplier and developer of process technology, automation solutions and services for the pulp, paper and energy industries. Valmet employs multiple production strategies in its diverse manufacturing operations, with product lead times ranging from a few days to few years. For such a complex production environment to function productively, the demands on production planning are high.
Benefits
- Highly configurable for diverse use cases and requirements
- Visual and easy to use
- Clear view of workload and available capacity
- Real-time progress tracking
- Simplified hours reporting for shop floor employees
Achievements
- Faster recovery from unexpected changes
- Reduced WIP (best: €2M → €400k)
- Improved on-time delivery (best: 20–40% → 90%+)
- Harmonized, near real-time KPIs
- Better support for customer-facing teams (e.g., improved CTP understanding)
Modern production planning software meets the challenges of the manufacturing industry
The global manufacturing industry faces many challenges that can affect its ability to meet demand, manage costs and remain competitive. Rapid market changes require manufacturers to be flexible and agile. Supply chains are often complex, and improving productivity requires continuous process improvements, technology leveraging and workforce skills development.
For more than a decade, Valmet has relied on Delfoi Planner for its production planning, and it is used in a wide variety of production environments.
“For us, planning horizons and lead times vary greatly, depending on what is being manufactured at any given time. Therefore, our requirement is that the production planning software should be able to manage both rough-cut planning and finite scheduling processes and support capacity-constrained planning and optimization. Delfoi Planner is the optimal solution for us in this respect,” says Tommi Paakkonen, Delivery Planning Manager at Valmet.
“Right from the start, we set scalability of the solution and inventory management capabilities as requirements for the new planning system. Delfoi Planner was the only software that could meet those requirements,” says Tapio Viitanen, Area Implementation Owner at Valmet.
Global implementation requires careful planning, resources, and commitment
Delfoi Planner is already in use in over 50 production units worldwide, and the number will only grow in the future as the solution is being rolled out alongside Valmet’s new ERP system.Successful implementations and seamless integration with Valmet’s ERP system have been the result of close cooperation between Delfoi’s and Valmet’s experts for many years. Understanding both global and local requirements and configuring the software to support different production strategies have been the key to success.
“The key benefits of Delfoi Planner are the visual user interface and clarity of the system. Planner helps to get an accurate overview of workload and capacity, and as an easy-to-use cloud solution it has been easy to adopt and maintain in our very varying production environments,” says Tommi Paakkonen, and continues,
“In capital business, we have 20-30 people in production planning and production in Finland who use Delfoi Planner on a daily basis. We cooperate internationally with planners from other countries and share lessons learned from each other.”
Concrete benefits in improving productivity
Delfoi Planner is integrated into Valmet’s Infor LN ERP-system in a two-way integration. Seamless integration between these two systems and active communication between production planners and shopfloor employees have resulted in highest productivity gains.
”For us, the development of production planning and the use of Delfoi Planner is a process in which we commit ourselves to the continuous development and to adapting to the changing environment. Delfoi Planner has been an important tool for us in this learning process for many years,” Valmet’s Delivery Planning Manager Tommi Paakkonen.
”We have achieved significant benefits from using Delfoi Planner in our production planning. Planner is very easy to configure for different use cases and requirements. Planner gives us a clear picture of workloads and available capacity, and enables us to monitor production progress in real time and react quickly to changing customer needs,” says Tapio Viitanen, Area Implementation Owner at Valmet, summing up:
”In terms of concrete benefits, we have achieved significant improvements in reducing work-in-progress, shortening lead times and improving on-time deliveries.”
Commitment and customer focus at the heart of the partnership
In the long-term partnership between Valmet and Delfoi, several factors have been central to creating and maintaining a strong, mutually beneficial relationship. Mutual trust, transparency and close cooperation have been among the most important of these.
“Delfoi’s customer service and support is at a very high level. We always get answers to our questions very quickly and accurately. Their team know us as a company and as people, and cooperation has always been easy and smooth,” says Tommi Paakkonen, Delivery Planning Manager at Valmet.
“Delfoi has a very good core development team. They can develop and deliver us solutions very quickly. Having a dedicated customer relationship manager who understands Valmet and our needs, has taken this partnership to the next level”, says Valmet System Manager Scott Griscom.
“From my point of view, the personal commitment and customer focus of Delfoi’s experts is the most important thing of all in this partnership. I am very grateful for all the support I have received from them over the years,” says Tapio Viitanen, Area Implementation Owner at Valmet.
”We have achieved significant benefits from using Delfoi Planner in our production planning."
– Area Implementation Owner Tapio Viitanen, Valmet