Valio – Production scheduling tool

Background

Valio Ltd is Finland’s biggest milk processor and receives the majority of the milk produced in Finland. Valio produces products in over 10 localities across Finland. Separate factories have specialized in manufacturing different kinds of high-quality products. EP-Logistics has earlier been involved in developing Valio’s logistics and operations in multiple assignments.

Assignment and results

To make daily producing of different kinds of special milks, yoghurts, snacks and jams more efficient, Valio needed a production scheduling tool which optimization algorithms take special characteristics of production processes into account. The functionalities of the tool were defined together with Valio’s production specialists. Based on these specifications, EP-logistics created a custom-made production scheduling tool for production planning.

Benefits

  • With the tool, it is possible to select the optimal production schedule from preparation to packing considering for example the capacity, material and batch size restrictions, changeover time and shelf life requirements
  • The tool illustrates the plan of the optimised multiphase production chain with visual graphs and charts
  • The planning and simulating of different production scenarios is easy with the tool
  • Instead of the making arduous calculations, the production planner can concentrate on making critical decisions
  • Cooperation with familiar partner was straightforward because the operations models and practises were already known