Corus selects Quintiq to provide cutting edge operational efficiency

('s-Hertogenbosch, the Netherlands, February 11, 2004) Quintiq, a leading supplier of enterprise wide solutions in advanced planning, scheduling and supply chain management has signed an agreement with Corus Aluminium Rolled Products, in Koblenz, for increasing the efficiency of its planning processes. From casting, up to hot rolling, detailed planning will be harmonized, synchronised and made much more efficient.

With the new detailed planning for the production of hot rolled products, the production processes of the Koblenz plant will be faster, more simple and safer. For Corus this means higher plant utilization, a significant reduction in inventory and increased delivery reliability at lower cost.

We expect that at the end of the project, inventory can be reduced by at least one day", said Gerd Refflinghaus, Manager of Logistics at Corus Aluminium Rolled Products GmbH. This will mean a huge saving when considering the 150,000t of aluminium handled annually in Koblenz.

Corus will have a real-time scheduling solution, which is fully integrated with the process control system- from cast house and homogenization, up to hot rolling. The coordination effort required between each of the schedulers is drastically reduced. A cycle time of currently three weeks, with constant manual adjustment, will soon be replaced by automatically coordinated scheduling and rapid adaptation to the actual situation.

Arjen Heeres, COO of Quintiq adds:" We are pleased with the addition of Corus to our growing list of customers in the aluminium industry. It reaffirms our established position as leading Advanced Planning and Scheduling solution provider for foundry, hot mill, cold mill and finishing. Furthermore, we look forward to helping Corus achieve considerable results with a more efficient planning and sustain their competitive advantage."

4Production will take care of the implementation at Corus in Koblenz. The consultants, as well as the project managers, of 4Production understand the production of semi-finished aluminium parts. One of the reasons why they were selected by Corus to take on this project.

Quintiq
Quintiq offers a standard software solution to virtually any planning, scheduling and supply chain optimization problem. Its breakthrough technology empowers companies with flexible solutions, enabling them to exactly model their business and optimize it fully, delivering bottom line value. Please visit www.quintiq.com for more information.

Corus Aluminium Walzprodukte GmbH
The Koblenz plant of the Corus Group is producing semi-finished parts, e.g. for the aviation and aerospace industry, heat exchanger production or engine building. For further information see: www.corus.com.

4Production AG
4Production AG is a consultancy and software provider, specialised in optimisation of complex production processes, especially in Dimensioning Production. This production principle describes the production of a variety of end-products from one basic material, e.g. metal, paper, plastic or glass. 4Production is connecting the advantages of standard-software with individual solutions and quickly realises efficiency enhancements and cost savings for their customers. For further information about 4Production and their solutions see: www.4production.de.

For more information: Martijn van Gils, Marketing Manager, Tel. +31-(0)73 6910739 e-mail: martijn.van.gils@quintiq.com.