Powder coatings manufacturer AkzoNobel has announced it will use a Quintiq solution to support its production planning across all its facilities in Europe.

The solution it will use is Advanced Planning and Scheduling (APS). Quintiq is also well known as a provider of supply chain optimisation solutions.

The Quintiq solution will support AkzoNobel Powder Coatings in increasing its manufacturing productivity and improving delivery performance while reducing inventory levels throughout its European supply chain in a complex production environment.

AkzoNobel chose the Quintiq solution because of its proven ability to handle the highly complex planning associated with process and batch manufacturing, the production techniques employed in AkzoNobel Powder Coatings facilities. “We really liked Quintiq’s approach to planning and were impressed with the knowledge base of the people who demonstrated the production planning solution,” commented Frank van Ooijen, global operations director for BU powder coatings at AkzoNobel.

Francois Eijgelshoven, business director at Quintiq, added: “The complex production processes of coatings manufacturers such as AkzoNobel require sophisticated planning solutions to reap the most from manufacturing capabilities - an ideal match for the capabilities of our Scheduler solution.”

With an overview of the entire manufacturing process - from raw materials to finished goods - the Scheduler will enable the company’s planners to optimally plan the manufacturing process to increase efficiency and reduce cleaning and setup times after running a batch.