Success Story: Digital transformation in SMEs – Rudolf von Scheven on the path to a smart factory with GANTTPLAN

From Excel to automated production planning

Traditional production planning, which is still often carried out using Excel, quickly reaches its limits as requirements grow. The increasing need for efficiency, coupled with a shortage of skilled labor in factories, makes advanced solutions for automated planning and control of processes and resources indispensable today. At Rudolf von Scheven GmbH—a third-generation, owner-managed manufacturer of ball valves—the combination of the detailed planning tool GANTTPLAN from DUALIS and the ERP solution COBUS ERP/3 has paved the way toward becoming a Smart Factory.

Key facts at a glance

Initial situation:

• The medium-sized company with around 70 employees is accelerating its path toward becoming a smart factory.
• Traditional production planning using Excel quickly reached its limits as requirements grew.
• Increasing demands for efficiency required modern solutions for automated planning and control.

Special features:

• The software was implemented as a supplement to the existing ERP system COBUS ERP/3 to close the gap between long-term planning and dynamic production requirements.
• A bidirectional SQL-based interface was developed between COBUS ERP/3 and GANTTPLAN.

Benefits:

• Relief for employees through automated planning and greater transparency in production
• Increased planning reliability and flexibility in manufacturing
• Cost savings and more efficient production processes
• Improved responsiveness to market demands and shorter delivery times
• Optimized personnel planning and consideration of outsourced production orders

The path to digital production planning at Rudolf von Scheven

In addition to the general goal of increasing efficiency, a more advanced production planning system was a key medium-term objective. A high degree of digitalization is increasingly becoming a competitive advantage not to be underestimated in the SME sector.

Initially, production planning continued to be carried out largely manually using the planning tool Excel. Only very few employees had full command of this planning document, which placed a heavy burden on those individuals and posed a risk to operations. This personnel dependency and lack of flexibility led to significant challenges in weekly production planning. Each week, production plans were recreated and orders manually updated. The lack of clarity resulted in inefficiencies, particularly when it came to assigning production orders to the corresponding customer orders.

To meet the growing demands and the strategic goal of evolving into a Smart Factory, an automated planning solution became necessary. Digitalization processes in SMEs require innovative approaches. This gap was closed by the Advanced Planning and Scheduling (APS) system GANTTPLAN from DUALIS. Today, the Expert version of this system is successfully used as a desktop client at Rudolf von Scheven in combination with COBUS ERP/3. GANTTPLAN Expert is an interactive APS system for manufacturing companies with high demands in order scheduling and additional requirements for personnel and/or tool planning.

High demands for digitalization in SMEs: From POC to live operation during ongoing business

In 2022, the implementation project began with a Proof of Concept (POC), which was already completed by June of the same year. The POC was a crucial step, as customer requirements were precisely captured during this phase and integrated into the planning model. The go-live took place in September 2023.

Implementation was carried out during ongoing operations and was executed in close collaboration between COBUS ConCept and DUALIS. Thanks to this close cooperation, the implementation was completed quickly and without major difficulties. Among other things, a bidirectional SQL-based interface was developed between COBUS ERP/3 and GANTTPLAN. This allows planning results to be written back from GANTTPLAN into the ERP system. The live start went smoothly. Mirroring the production data in an ERP test system also enabled configuration that was both realistic and close to real-time. As a result, the production reality was mapped in the APS system from the very beginning.

From Excel to fully automated production and employee scheduling

With the detailed planning tool GANTTPLAN, production planning at Rudolf von Scheven is now fully automated. Key features include automatic setup time optimization, detailed scheduling of production resources, and personnel planning based on employee qualifications. This functionality is critical, as Rudolf von Scheven’s products – particularly certified components for critical infrastructure – may only be handled by specially qualified personnel. In addition to 50 machines and workstations and 40 employees, external workstations are also taken into account. The solution enables precise planning and monitoring of complex order structures, machines, and personnel in production.

In the COBUS ERP/3 system, material requirements planning is carried out based on the daily available capacities. GANTTPLAN also links the various material providers (inventory, supplier orders, production orders) with the material consumers (customer and production orders), enabling realistic planning that considers capacity constraints. This supports seamless integration and verification of material flows in production planning. Furthermore, GANTTPLAN can detect whether certain production orders are no longer necessary and, if applicable, can close them in the ERP system. This efficiently supports material requirements planning (MRP) and optimizes scheduling in the ERP/3 system.

Planning transformed – Efficiency redefined

The introduction of GANTTPLAN has elevated production planning at Rudolf von Scheven to a new level. Whereas previously, manual planning by a few individuals made day-to-day operations more difficult, GANTTPLAN now ensures transparency, efficiency, and predictability. The system is now actively used by significantly more employees, distributing responsibilities across multiple shoulders. Thanks to the various features in GANTTPLAN – such as the control station, reports, and production order network visualization – it is now easier and clearer to track which production orders are interconnected.

The APS not only enables optimized personnel planning but also takes outsourced production orders into account and plans seamlessly across internal and external capacities. Order networks – i.e., interrelated production orders – are now clearly visualized and can be scheduled more efficiently in sequence.

Next steps toward future-proof production

Following the successful go-live, Rudolf von Scheven is already planning the next steps. Dynamic setup optimization and the integration of machine terminals for visualizing occupancy plans on the shopfloor are on the agenda as upcoming enhancements. In particular, the introduction of dynamic setup optimization is expected to deliver further efficiency gains. It uses a setup matrix to calculate the setup time between a currently active operation and potential subsequent operations. This allows setup times in production planning to be sustainably minimized. Initial experiences in this area have been consistently positive.

*COBUS ConCept is part of the COBUS Group, a family-owned company with locations in Münster, Rheda-Wiedenbrück, and Würzburg. COBUS ConCept has been successfully implementing ERP projects for over 30 years and now supports more than 250 customer installations.