News 2009

Ovako Wire has chosen the Quintiq Company Planner to improve its international Supply Chain

Vantaa, Finland, January 12, 2009

Quintiq, a leading provider of Advanced Planning and Scheduling (APS) solutions today announced that Ovako Wire has chosen the Quintiq Company Planner solution to optimize its material flow over the entire supply chain. The integrated planning system will be covering the steel mill in Koverhar, the rolling mill in Dalsbruk (both in Finland) and the rolling mill and after treatment activities in Alblasserdam (the Netherlands). Despite the uncertain economic situation in general, Ovako Wire invested in Quintiq to become leaner and more agile in its supply chain activities making sure they are ready for the future.

“Now is just the time to invest in Quintiq as our key resources and knowledge can be used to make this supply chain initiative a great success together with Quintiq” says Jacques van de Werf, President Ovako Wire.

Looking forward to happier customers through better delivery performance
Ovako Wire aims to gain better visibility over the entire supply chain as well as insight and control over the inventory across all production sites, including for example taking into account constraints with respect to logistic movements, like the sea transportation from Finland to the Netherlands. Reducing lead time and delivering in time according to the confirmed due-dates with the right service level is among the major goals of the company. Up to now it was extremely difficult to determine the best possible delivery time taking into account the actual availability of the production and transportation capacity. The Quintiq Company Planner will help to improve the visibility through better transparency of customer and related production orders and materials in one single system. Material and stock management and the creation of production orders will be the core functionalities supported by Quintiq.

Relying on the capabilities of Quintiq
Ovako Wire has now chosen Quintiq for the second time. In 2006, the Alblasserdam site already implemented the Quintiq solution in order to improve utilization of the furnaces and decreasing the lead time for wire products within the After Treatment area.. Quintiq has proven to be a strong partner throughout all complex planning challenges. The active control of the inventory and stocking points and hence reduced lead times as well as the increased delivery performance will give Ovako Wire a higher flexibility to react on changes in time as well as to reduce costs in the long term.

“After, a successful Proof-of-Concept and a reference visit for Company Planner, we were certain of the fact that Quintiq will be our partner for this project” explained Markus Malinen, VP Logistics and ICT at Ovako Wire.

Francois Eijgelshoven, Director for the Metals and Manufacturing Business Unit at Quintiq, states: “This again proves that we are in the middle of the core business of our clients, like with Ovako Wire, and will have an impact on how they will run their business in the future.”

About Ovako
Ovako is a leading European long special steel products company. Our production covers low alloy steels and carbon steels in the form of bars, wire rod, tubes and rings. Our total net sales are around EUR 2 billion. We employ 4,300 people at 15 production sites and several sales companies in Europe and the USA. Our total production is 2 million tons of steel a year. Steel of the right quality. For more information visit www.ovako.com

About Quintiq
Quintiq provides advanced planning, scheduling and supply chain optimization solutions. The fast-growing company, established in 1997, offers software for planning and optimizing complex business processes throughout the enterprise. The company's headquarters is located in the Netherlands and it has subsidiaries in Australia, China, Finland, Germany, Malaysia, UK, and the USA. For more information: www.quintiq.com