Support for production planning at Carrus Delta

Lean System enterprise resource planning boosts the planning of production and resources and management of material flows at Carrus Delta, a company specialized in bus body production.

Carrus Delta makes the bodies of the Volvo 9700 series buses onto completed chassis as a licensed manufacturer. In addition to tourist buses the company manufactures specially equipped buses suitable, for example, for ambulance use or wheelchairs.

The company was a part of Volvo Group until 2008 when Volvo sold the factory to a Finnish group of investors and the operating management. At that time, a need arose for an enterprise resource planning system that suited the company’s own processes.

“We needed a flexible and versatile system with user-friendly properties,” says IT responsible Harri Varjonen from Carrus Delta.

At the beginning of 2010, the SAP system shared earlier with Volvo was replaced with Tieto’s Lean System enterprise resource planning system.

The important role of planning

The factory manufactures approximately 180 buses annually. Each bus is made to order, customized according to the customer’s wishes.

The company assembles the bodies of the buses in Lieto. The chassis, which includes the engine, gearbox, suspension, steering and transmission, comes to the factory as a finished product. Glass windows and seats are also purchased from subcontractors.

“Each bus is designed separately. Conveyor production and the large volume of material flows emphasize the importance of capacity and resource planning. The enterprise resource planning system provides strong support for planning,” says Harri Varjonen.

Fast establishment of targets for development

The deployment began in the beginning of September 2009, and in the beginning of January 2010 the system was in production use.

“Now our production staff can concentrate on their actual work – not on recording information. We wanted as many people as possible to be able to use the system as extensively as possible. Thanks to linking documents, our entire personnel can utilize information related to orders and purchases as well as product documentation,” Harri Varjonen explains.

“Monitoring costs, working hours and quality helps us to develop production constantly. Reports reveal deviations and improvement needs fast.”

Challenge

Having been a part of a large Group, Carrus Delta became an independent company through acquisition in 2008. At that time, the need arose for an enterprise resource planning system that suited the company's own processes.

Solution

Tieto’s Lean System enterprise resource planning system was deployed in Carrus Delta in January 2010. The system manages the entire production process: offers, orders, planning and production, material purchases, invoicing and document management.

Added value

“Lean System boosts production development and planning and resource management. Additionally, the enterprise resource planning system supports change management and component purchasing very well. Thanks to the system, production runs smoothly, we have the right components at the right time and we can also reduce the capital bound in warehouses,” says Harri Varjonen from Carrus Delta.