Thousands of work orders under control

The manufacturing heritage of Mamec Oy, based in Lohja, Finland, reaches back to the early 1950s, and today the company combines two worlds. Its own Mamec-brand industrial mixers and pumps serve the process industry around the world, most strongly in pulp and paper and in water treatment. The largest mixers stand up to 20 meters tall. Its high-tech contract manufacturing produces analyzers for the mining and metallurgical industries, semiconductor-industry equipment where precision reaches down to the atomic level, and other devices that make use of nanoscale phenomena. In 2024 the company’s revenue was EUR 16.9 million. Of its roughly 80 employees, 50 to 60 work in production, and most of the manufacturing is done in-house. A lot is therefore demanded of production management.

Paper work orders reached the end of the road

Before SkyPlanner, production control relied on the ERP system’s rigid planning functions, and forming an overall picture with them was not possible. In practice, the diverse production was steered on the shop floor, where supervisors and the production manager prioritized jobs based on the delivery dates on paper work orders. The interdependencies of thousands of jobs could not be managed by hand, so it was hard to ensure that work ran in the order of its true priorities. This showed in delivery reliability and as an extra burden on production control. Without a single reliable source of information, management’s view of the production load was also based on subjective estimates.

Adaptability decided the choice

When developing planning within the ERP system did not progress, Mamec systematically surveyed production planning systems and compared SkyPlanner against two other options. The decisive factor was SkyPlanner’s adaptability to Mamec’s dynamic production, which runs thousands of simultaneous work orders ranging from a few minutes to eight-hour runs. The other options could not demonstrate comparable scalability. The implementation was carried out on a brisk schedule together with Skycode, and SkyPlanner was integrated with Mamec’s Oscar ERP system. Functionally the change was big, but the rollout went more easily than expected.

AI does the groundwork

SkyPlanner now serves as the master platform for Mamec’s production planning. SkyPlanner’s AI-powered finite scheduling does solid groundwork on its own routine: jobs fall into order automatically, and work queues locked for a week at a time bring clarity to the machinists’ everyday work. The next job is always known, so upcoming jobs can be prepared during long runs. At the same time, the system provides a real-time view of the production situation to everyone it concerns. At Mamec, transparency is meant for the entire staff: with an order number, anyone can see immediately where a job stands and how it is scheduled. The information is not based on subjective views but on shared master data. Management, in turn, sees the production load at a glance: whether there is work for a week or for five months. The learning continues, and in weekly meetings both parties go through the system’s features so that its full potential is put to use.

The big picture and the details under control

The mental and concrete burden of production planning has eased clearly. The optimized work sequence has reduced downtime at workstations, and lead times have become more sensible. Jobs are started at the right time, so working capital is not tied up unnecessarily in work in progress. Delivery reliability has improved. Change management is also on a new level in demanding customer-driven product development, where the manufacturing sequence can change tens of times: the effects are worked out with little effort, and the customer can be told reliably what can be promised.

“

Production is under control in a different way, and our understanding of capacity is on a completely different level. SkyPlanner gives the big picture but also makes it really easy to drill into the details. Compared to where we started, this is a whole different world.

Hannu Ryynänen CEO, Mamec Oy

Reported results

• A real-time view of the production situation for the whole organization
• Improved delivery reliability
• Less downtime thanks to an optimized work sequence
• A clearly lighter production planning workload

Toward serial production and growth

Next, Mamec is implementing a PLM system, through which design structures will be turned into manufacturing-oriented manufacturing BOMs. This will sharpen the job sequence further. At the same time, the manufacturing of certain products is moving from the prototype phase to serial production, and SkyPlanner’s AI-powered planning gives Mamec the ability to model the impact of production improvements on efficiency. A company delivering mixers and high-tech contract manufacturing to the world is ever more ready for growth when the big picture and the details stay under control.