What was the problem?
Hanson Building Products operates three block manufacturing plants within the south east Queensland region. With the capability to produce several hundred different products (block type and colour) at each plant it was difficult to determine appropriate stock levels and production rates while minimising transport and holding costs.
What did we do?
InterDynamics developed a tool which utilised:
- Product production details (weight of product, costs, manufacturing times etc)
- Previous sales history for each product at each plant
- Plant production capability (incorporating times of operation, maintenance schedules, and product change timings)
- Plant economic factors (product change, labour and other associated costs)
- Transport costs (both time and dollar values) between plants.
With this information, the tool calculated the optimal economic order quantity for each product and a location at which to make it to minimize ongoing operating and transport costs.