The Company

Elring Klinger AG is an international group with 41 production sites worldwide and more than 6,000 employees, achieving a turnover of over €1 billion in 2011. The Italian subsidiary was established in 1997, located in the province of Milan. The company focuses on the core business of the parent company: manufacturing and marketing gaskets and sealing systems for various automotive and motorcycle applications.

Context

“Leading European car and commercial vehicle manufacturers send us weekly delivery schedules via EDI, which means we manage scheduled demand with a just-in-time flow to their plants for OEM products. Alongside the OEM business, the Italian subsidiary also operates in the Aftermarket sector, distributing Elring-branded products, where we face highly fragmented and unpredictable demand,” says Giovanni Carugati, Managing Director.

“Order fulfillment punctuality is essential: OEMs constantly measure our service levels, while spare parts customers need rapid deliveries to meet specific needs. The main challenge in planning and scheduling stems from demand variability: our order portfolio visibility is limited to about a week, requiring rapid response times. Before implementing COMPASS, we only planned short-term executive orders, disregarding delivery requests beyond the frozen horizon. Meanwhile, our raw materials often have lead times of 3 to 5 weeks”.continues Carugati.

““From the initial stages of integrating the two production sites, it became clear that a planning and monitoring tool was essential to manage demand volatility and quickly respond to scenario changes. This integration also provided an opportunity to rethink our entire information system architecture, fostering organizational convergence and cultural integration between the two companies.

At ElringKlinger SpA, we already used COMPASS for production and purchasing planning, factory data collection, and traceability. Since these functions were manual at Oigra, the new management structure supported my proposal to extend COMPASS to the new company.”

Solution

The New Planning & Scheduling (APS) Process

The COMPASS implementation project coincided with the introduction of the new ERP system, SAGE X3 by Formula. X3 provides COMPASS with updated customer orders, while planning parameters were set directly within the department. The planning manager runs the Master Production Schedule (MPS) and finite capacity production schedule twice daily, feeding data to factory panels used by operators for production declarations.

“With COMPASS’s production and purchasing order confirmation function, orders are released as production nears, ensuring timely execution.”

“Our production scheduling doesn’t require complex sequencing or optimization. Our priority is balancing order loads across alternative resources to meet delivery dates. COMPASS’s fast scheduling and manual resource adjustments make it indispensable in daily operations.”

Production Control and Traceability

“We implemented advanced production monitoring using touchscreen panel PCs in each department, enabling real-time tracking of all factory activities, direct and indirect. The panels also collect raw material batch data, ensuring full traceability up to the finished product. This improved data quality and allowed timely analysis of key production KPIs. We also obtain reliable machine and labor time data for product costing and reporting to the parent company.”

Results

“We successfully completed an ambitious project within just six months for both COMPASS and the new ERP.

Thanks to our team’s commitment and selected partners, we achieved excellent results, improving:

• Service levels

• Order planning quality, frequency, and horizon

• Production process and resource information quality and availability

• Inventory turnover

• Integration between different company functions.”

Giovanni Carugati, Managing Director Elring Klinger