GreenTec completes mapping and analysis phase

GreenTec is a Danish company specialising in designing, building, selling and servicing machines to maintain green areas. Since 1979, GreenTec has developed a comprehensive portfolio of machines mainly used for grass mowing, tree trimming and hedge cutting. The company sells worldwide and is known for its high quality, service level and green policy, all supported by continuous innovation efforts to maximise the machines' operational efficiency.

Ambition to double capacity requires taking advantage of digital technologies

Because of the significant increase in demand, GreenTec has the ambitious goal to double its production capacity within the next five years. The main reasons for GreenTec is to join the Digital Factory Acceleration (DFA) programme were to get detailed insights, build a strong understanding of its current production system, and get professional advice regarding the opportunities for increasing capacity by taking advantage of digital technologies.

Missing capacity opportunities identified

The first phase of the DFA programme (I.e. the mapping and analysis performed using FORCE Technology's "Digital Factory Mapping") has shown and explained how the actual production capacity was far from the theoretical capacity of the company's production system – confirming GreenTec's initial hypothesis. The analysis of the mapped processes highlighted several capacity-increase opportunities to capture a significant amount of the "missing" capacity.

The main opportunities for increasing the capacity of the current production systems concerned:

• A production scheduling software (or module integrated with the ERP system) to increase transparency between sales, planning and production and to reduce the complexity and resources related to batch pooling, planning and re-planning activities
•  An inventory management system with the possibility to update booked components in real-time when orders are confirmed, as well as components that are added or removed from different inventory locations during the actual production activities (e.g. based on QR/barcodes and QR/barcode scanners)
• A digital interface for providing order information and inventory information in a distributed way (e.g. a tablet located at each assembly line) as well as for registering the order status, increasing transparency and reducing the need for using and processing paper
• A "kitting" process changing the current components' preparation activities to perform them in parallel to the assembly activities and reducing the risk of starting assembly activities in the case of missing componens
•  A hybrid strategy instead of a full make-to-order strategy, due to the nature of the sales and to address the planning complexity, the utilisation increase potential and the current high value and low turnover of the inventory

 Collaboration on identified digital solutions moves forward

The deployment of an MES system and adoption of a new ERP system clearly emerged as fundamental support for a large part of the identified opportunities and were presented as key starting points. The mapping and analysis phase results, performed through a Digital Factory Mapping, immediately led to practical implementation activities: the company has now started working on implementing the "kitting" process and the hybrid strategy.

The collaboration between GreenTec and FORCE Technology is moving forward, focusing on the identified digital solutions. GreenTec is taking advantage of the advice from FORCE Technology – co-financed by Industriens Fond in the second phase of the DFA programme - to define the necessary ERP system functionalities and support around integrating a new ERP system. This will be the foundation for implementing the other identified solutions.