Mid-term capacity planning process and tool for textile services company

Abstract

This development project was carried out for Lindström Oy. The purpose of the project was to do a needs assessment for medium-term purchase planning and develop a process for it. The goal also included comparing alternative software as a tool for the process. The process needs to bind the long-term plan forecast to the ongoing purchasing process. This will be done by using the plan as a base and updating the plan more often, in a weekly basis. The plan is updated and validated by the Mid-term Planner who is the only one making changes to the plan. The plan is then shared with the execution parties.

The search for the application software was started from what are already in use at Lindström. These software are used in different levels of the purchasing and production planning. All systems are very different and all of them have very different strengths and weaknesses. None of the solutions were a perfect match and were unable to fulfill all the requirements set for the tool. There was not one clear winner, but one favourite was found.