Everything started in 1940. Born of Italians ‘in a shop where pasta and Italian products were sold’, G. Panzani decided, after being demobilized and recovering from an injury, to go into his father’s former business. He settled in the attic of his wife’s parents and made fresh pasta on a small scale: ‘They were handmade (…) it took me 6 hours to make 20 kg . Then I delivered them by bike.’ From 1940 Panzani went from crafts to industry with the trademark Francine, and became Pasta Panzani in 1950. Today Panzani stands for 300 million turnover, 770 employees, 3 pasta plants, 3 semolina plants and 302,500 tons of products a year!

The origin of the project

Between 1997 and 1998, Panzani created a new sales forecast cell as well as an industrial planning post, and equipped itself with the SKEP® Forecasting and SKEP® Planning solutions by DynaSys. The first results showed in 1999, with a significant increase of the customer service rate. At the beginning of 2000,

Panzani wanted to decrease its inventory level while keeping a good customer service level. Panzani decided, in February 2000, to adopt n.SKEP®, the new collaborative solution by DynaSys, as well as integrating n.SKEP® Optimizer, the module for optimization of production plans.

The implementation of n.SKEP at Panzani’s started in April 2002 and was finished at the end of October, that's an implementation time of less than 6 months!

The objectives of the project

Panzani focused on several objectives for 2002-2003:

• Improved use of available data, essentially in order to manage the demand on special offers, as well as a uniqueness of data sources
• Moving from monthly planning to weekly planning
• Having a realistic and respected packaging plan for each factory
• Maintaining a service rate over 99.5%
• Minimizing inter-zone transfers
• Reducing the stock level

From today to tomorrow…

After the implementation of n.SKEP® Production Planning by DynaSys, Panzani can already measure immediate results:

• The demand management is controlled
• The production plans are coherent and optimized, thanks to n.SKEP® completed by Optimizer
• Adaptation of n.SKEP® to Panzani’s functional process

Panzani is also future-orientated. In fact, the manufacturer wants to refine the technical data thanks to a better setup parameterising (launching, batch size, change time), but also to reduce the days of interval with co-packing, as well as security stocks. Thanks to the flexibility and the quick implementation of n.SKEP®, Panzini only needed 6 weeks to implement the planning of a new factory on its own.

‘The objectives following the implementation of n.SKEP® at Panzani’s are clear: we wish to refine the production planning by getting to a weekly planning system. For the factories, this means a reduction of transfers and of their associated costs, thanks to a stricter planning of the needs for each of them. For Panzani, it appears as a better running of the production tool, as well as a decrease of the inventory level: to produce the right quantity and to have the right products, on the right week, in the right area.’

Yves Jaillard, Panzani’s Factory Planning Manager

Proven benefits

• Improvement of the service rate
• Stock decrease
• Demand management

Organisation around n.SKEP®

• 1 central server located at Panzani’s head office in Lyon
• 2 central planners working on the system in Lyon
• 1 person working on subcontracting planning in Lyon
• 1 person taking charge of the arbitration between both plants, from the head office in Lyon
• 1 person in each factory is in charge of the system’s local management, with the possibility to refer to the planning plans from a distance, via internet

The contributions of n.SKEP®

n.SKEP® is a global collaborative planning solution of Supply Chain Management, integrating within one single solution the detailed demand management (demand by origin of the need, ATP, CTP calculation, …). The solution proposed by DynaSys allows a larger modelling flexibility, very pleasant ergonomics as well as openness and an evolution capacity of modeling. n.SKEP® also allows Panzani to have a data coherence (automatic supplying) and an easy automation of the tasks. .

‘Thanks to n.SKEP®, we will be able to integrate more easily the new activities of the group, within the framework of our different merger and buyout projects. Today we have enough flexibility to add new data to the planning process of the company.’

Yves Jaillard, Panzani’s Factory Planning Manager