EKOY’s SkyPlanner APS Review: From Manual Loading to AI Finite Scheduling

Founded in 1978, Eino Korhonen Oy is a family company from Porvoo, Finland, that has grown under second-generation leadership into a specialist in electromechanical components and contract manufacturing. In January 2025 the company was named Injection Molder of the Year in recognition of responsible injection molding, strong automation, and persistent in-house development. The production is demanding. The company has 26 injection molding machines and around 500 molds, and the multi-stage chain runs from plastic molding and brass components all the way to final assembly. The Porvoo factory employs 23 people and the Estonian subsidiary EKOY Elektroonika 65.

The limits of manual planning

Before SkyPlanner, production planning was done by hand. Two production loaders compiled jobs from the order book into Excel spreadsheets and onto a physical board, where work orders were prioritized in swimlane fashion. With a single end-product order potentially meaning thousands of molded parts, keeping the whole under control took a lot: preparing the next day’s production schedule took three to four hours a day. As the company grew, there could be hundreds or even thousands of simultaneous jobs, and all their cause-and-effect relationships are impossible to manage with the human mind. Parts made in early production did not always match the needs of final assembly, and changes arriving mid-process were laborious to work into the schedule. In times of high demand this showed in delivery reliability, and the roughly one-week delivery promise sometimes had to give.

Experience decided the choice

The change was set in motion by a new technical director with experience in AI-based project management. This offered a natural opportunity to modernize production control with current technology. EKOY compared SkyPlanner against another production planning system. The decisive factor was SkyPlanner’s strong experience with the Lemonsoft ERP: there was a ready base for the integration. Cost-effectiveness and the system’s adaptability were also convincing. EKOY’s production has special characteristics, such as family molds, where one run produces two different items, each with its own job. The flexible handling of situations like these built confidence that SkyPlanner fits exactly their environment.

AI handles the loading

Today, final assembly at Harju-Risti in Estonia defines the component needs and creates the jobs, and the rest is automatic. SkyPlanner’s AI optimizes the loading and places the jobs across the multi-stage production chain so that the target completion date is met. In an environment of 26 machines and around 500 molds, managing mold changes is critical. The setters get a work list from SkyPlanner that tells them which mold goes next into which machine. Thanks to automatic finite scheduling, separate production loaders are no longer needed, and the freed-up capacity has been redirected to other productive work.

Delivery reliability on a new level

The effects show clearly. Internal delivery reliability has improved by about 30%, and external delivery reliability is at the target level of around 98%. AI-powered automatic loading has brought significant savings, roughly one person’s annual workload, now that separate manual job arranging is no longer needed. The reporting tools have also proven useful: they show actual working time and deviations from the plan, and production leads follow the actuals continuously.

EKOY’s review: reported results

• Internal delivery reliability improved by about 30%
• External delivery reliability at the target level of around 98%
• Roughly one person’s annual workload saved with AI-powered automatic loading
• Setters get a work list telling which mold goes next into which machine
• Reporting shows actual working time and deviations from the plan

Ready for the next wave of growth

SkyPlanner is part of Eino Korhonen Oy’s long-term digitalization and automation program, whose goal is to serve customers faster, more flexibly, and more proactively. Investments in production control, automation, and data-driven management improve delivery reliability and shorten lead times, whether the case is a single customer need or a large production run. The development is backed by the company’s broad in-house capabilities in product design, machine building, and manufacturing: EKOY is a full-service partner that manages the value chain from design to manufacturing and all the way to coordinating external order and delivery processes.

As next steps, SkyPlanner is set to be rolled out at the Estonian factory as well, and by prioritizing similar jobs the company aims to reduce waste at material changeovers. During the post-pandemic demand spike, revenue grew by about 60% a year, and manual production planning, and through it especially the management of setter capacity, became the bottleneck. With AI managing the whole, the company is now better prepared to meet the next rise in demand.