▉ The challenge

A publicly traded American manufacturer faced challenges due to operational constraints and complexities in its production processes. Demand for many of the company’s products outstripped production due to the building boom in 2021 and the necessity of personal protective equipment (PPE) and medical packaging during the pandemic.

Complicating matters, the client’s specialty product requires a complex, three-step manufacturing process, which resulted in production bottlenecks and downtime, and slowed production significantly. In a fast-paced manufacturing environment, each hour of downtime results in major losses. The client recognized that it could lose market share and its reputation for reliability if it did not get to the root of the issues and engineer a solution.

▉ The breakthrough

The organization engaged EY services given the organization’s understanding of how to apply Microsoft technology to address core operational challenges through streamlining planning and scheduling processes. To meet the client’s requirements, the EY teams started by assessing existing operational processes and reviewed the plant floor to identify operations or steps that could be automated or improved. By employing Microsoft Azure technologies and the Microsoft Power Platform, EY teams were able to build a complex scheduling improvement model that balanced both operational and performance indicators.