Mitsui Norin

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Mitsui Norin optimizes production and inventory with Interstage BPM Analytics

SOLUTION

Interstage Business Process Manager Analytics is used as the foundation for production volume and inventory level optimization. With Interstage BPM Analytics, Mitsui Norin can sense and respond to restocking issues in real-time.

OVERVIEW

Mitsui Norin, one of the largest tea manufacturers in Japan, is working on inventory optimization, a top priority for the company.

"Sales of tea products and the amount of tea leaf procurement vary significantly by seasons," said Mr. Masahiko Iwasawa, Director of Production Management. "As we deal with foods, production volume optimization is strictly required to maintain quality. This is always quite a challenge. Keeping an optimized balance between production and inventory is essential to deliver quality products."

Previously, adjustments to production volume were done by collecting and analyzing data from different departments. This included sales forecasts, shipment records, inventory level information, and production plans. "The necessary data was spread across different systems that were optimized for each department and couldn't be collected and integrated effectively. I was eager to improve this situation", said Mr. Jyunetsu Sasaki, Director of Information System Department. It was also impossible to monitor the data in real-time given the silo-ed information and the time that it took to collect the data manually for analysis.

The manual process of collecting information from different systems began with the production management team gathering data from each system, cross-referencing the information, and then analyzing it in spreadsheets. The team tracked between 600 and 1000 parameters annually and each spread-sheet had over 5,000 cells. In spite of hiring seven people during peak periods to do the work, the data analysis was not completed on time. The tedious manual process also meant that it was impossible to predict inventory shortage accurately and make adjustments quickly. In fact, decisions around production adjustment were "based on the staff's personal experiences", says Mr. Iwasawa. There were risk implications for the company.

THE SOLUTION: IMPROVING PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT WITH MONITORING AND ANALYSIS CAPABILITIES

In April of 2008, work began to implement Fujitsu's Interstage Business Process Manager Analytics (Interstage BPM Analytics) after comparing products from several vendors. Interstage BPM Analytics provides them with the ability to monitor and analyze the current state of business in real-time, and detect and resolve business issues quickly. The product was implemented without modification to the existing systems and it helped users gather and analyze business data to improve their existing production-related processes.

OUTLINE OF THE SYSTEM

The implementation was completed in three months. Initially, the team tracked 50 items and has since expanded the number of items incrementally. Interstage BPM Analytics was used to build a system that tracks inventory levels for products and then alerts the group to restock when the levels hit a predefined "reorder point". This helps eliminate delays in responding to inventory shortages or overstock situations.

"We would not have been able to calculate reorder points without Interstage BPM Analytics as it would mean trawling through massive amounts of historical data," said Mr. Kitamura, Manager of the Production Management Office.

THE BENEFITS AND FUTURE ENHANCEMENTS: RESPONDING TO INVENTORY ISSUES IN TIME

Mitsui Norin significantly decreased the time taken to collect and analyze data from multiple systems by implementing Interstage BPM Analytics. This forms the basis for decisions around production optimization. "We now have an environment that lets us predict issues and respond to them before they actually happen," said Mr. Kitamura. Moreover, "our staff can concentrate on our core business processes such as improving production planning and preventing production mishaps".

"We've successfully created the infrastructure that supports production volume optimization and inventory level optimization," said Mr. Iwasawa with confidence. The use of Interstage BPM Analytics helps the company predict and respond to inventory shortage and overstock issues quickly. Visualizing data from multiple systems lets them zero in on areas for process improvement. Mitsui Norin continues to work on improving their production management process and rolling out the software to other areas of the company.