The Sveza Group is the world market leader in birch plywood. The company operates seven mills across the country. Each year the company produces almost 1.4 million cubic meters of wood-based panels. The fruitful cooperation between Odyssey and Sveza began in 2012, when the first contract was signed and the long-term and effective cooperation began. Odyssey developed a strategic planning system for the Sveza Group. The project was based on IBM Planning Analytics (Cognos TM1) and allows the holding company to plan its performance indicators for the decade ahead, taking into account changes in the macroeconomic situation, entries into new markets, and production modernization.
"For seven years, we have trusted Odyssey with the digital transformation of our business processes. This IT consulting company has previously helped Sveza to implement budgeting and operational planning systems. We are accustomed to the unwavering professionalism of Odyssey employees, so we have once again chosen them to develop our planning systems."
Elena Stolyarova, Head of Budgeting and Management Accounting at Sveza
We have relied on Odyssey for the digital transformation of our business processes for seven years. This IT-consulting company has previously helped "Sveza" to implement budgeting and operational planning systems. We are accustomed to Odyssey's unwavering professionalism, so we again chose them to help us develop our planning systems. Learning from the positive experience with digital solutions previously installed, the management of Sveza decided to connect all levels of planning and create a unified information environment based on IBM Planning Analytics (Cognos TM1).
The proximity of the start of the strategic planning new stage has imposed additional restrictions on the sequence of automation with stringent requirements for the timing of the project. Strict adherence to them allowed us to compensate for the lack of time. Our team provided a detailed project plan, the strict adherence to which allowed us to complete all stages of implementation on time without any omissions or haste. The same team that implemented and supported solutions for Sveza earlier also got involved in the launch.
Over the years of working together, the two companies have established an excellent, trusting relationship. From the very first weeks it was clear that Odyssey specialists are up to the task because they know the customer's business very well.
Marina Gurova, Odyssey Head of Corporate Planning and Budgeting Group says, "Since the first project our experts have been aware of all financial, technical, and production changes that have taken place in the organization. Automation was based on IBM Planning Analytics (Cognos TM1), a platform for planning, budgeting, forecasting, and analysis, designed to build a convenient system for planning and research analytics. The solution encompassed all of the holding's divisions, from the sales directorate to the production units."
Sveza Group's strategic planning model is now formed for a ten-year period, broken down to the year, and includes: - sales forecast and planning;
- production planning taking into account plan optimization algorithms;
- payroll planning;
- fixed and variable costs planning.
The procedure of drawing up a strategic plan is built as follows: first the necessary macroeconomic indicators are defined, for example, inflation or currency rates, then the demand forecast is made, from which sales and production are planned, cost indicators are calculated. At the end the final accounts are made, linked balance sheet, budgets of income and expenses and cash flow of the company.
Odyssey specialists supplemented the production planning system based on IBM Planning Analytics with an integrated mathematical optimization tool based on Odyssey Smarter Logistics solution. This made it possible to distribute the workload among combines in such a way as to achieve the maximum margin for the products while taking into account all the limitations: the level of demand satisfaction, warehouse capacity, production capacity, etc. Importantly, mathematical optimization is used as a step in the planning process, i.e. it enables mathematically substantiated optimal management decisions to be applied to Sveza's strategic plans.
The advantages of optimizing strategic planning for the Sveza group include:
- support for the long-term development of the holding company
- the system takes into account the calculations for new markets, products and combines when planning;
- automatic consolidation of all budgets, resulting in faster final forms, schedules, reports;
- minimization of manual input, resulting in increased data quality and reduced labor costs;
- unified methodology for all business units, objects;
- differentiation of access rights;
- effective work with plan versions.
Development prospects
As part of the continuous and integrated planning creation, Sveza Group and Odyssey are going to implement a project to switch to 18-month rolling planning, which is necessary to minimize the gaps between operational and business planning. To support calculations for new markets, products, and combinations, the partners want to further enhance the sales planning model with the option of segmentation by aggregated analytics with further granularity to product range and customer. Another important initiative is the use of innovative tools, such as machine learning, to accurately forecast demand.
