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    • LOGIS Master Planner improves efficiency of the Sales & Operations Planning process at TimkenSteel

    TimkenSteel Corporation (www.timkensteel.com), a leader in high-quality specialty steel, manufactured components, and supply chain solutions is enjoying the benefits resulting from an innovation of its Sales & Operations Planning system. The system has been based on the LOGIS Master Planner planning software from the LOGIS company (logis.net).

    November 11, 2021

    TimkenSteel Corporation carried out an innovative redesign of its Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP) system in 2019, the final stage of a major transformation of their planning system. The new S&OP process is supported by the LOGIS Master Planner planning software, a product of the LOGIS company. This builds upon previous deployments of a state-of-the-art Production Planning and Scheduling system, also based on the suite of cutting-edge planning tools from LOGIS, addressing the mid-term and short-term horizon.

    Mr. Marcin Binczyk, Vice President of Supply Chain at TimkenSteel, states, “Based on our experience with production usage of LOGIS Master Planner, I can say that the advantages it provides to us in these challenging times filled with change are clearly visible and very valuable. From the business perspective, LOGIS Master Planner strengthens our ability to proactively respond to the changing outlooks in our markets. Thanks to being able to quickly find a way to satisfy the forecasted demand in the most efficient manner, we’re now able to apply the needed measures in time. Put simply, we’re able to make much better use of the changing market situation than ever before.”

    Ms. Stacy Adamski, Sr. Manager – SIOP, Inventory & Master Planning at TimkenSteel, affirms that, “LOGIS Master Planner is enabling us to efficiently respond to what’s ahead. In LOGIS Master Planner, we’re confronting the forecast with our production constraints and with possible ways of producing demanded products. It allows us to evaluate what usage of our production capacities within our constraints is going to allow us to achieve the best results. Working with the tool is comfortable and fast. Thanks to that, we now can also focus on alternative solution variants and compare them against each other. The high speed of processing the plan also allows us to respond quickly and adequately to forecast corrections or to deviations of the real orders coming in from the forecasts.”

    “For example,” continues Ms. Adamski. “The biggest decision this year regarding utilization of our resources was the decision to idle one of our melt assets in Canton, Ohio. You just can’t decide like that blindfolded. It would be very risky without being backed by a high-quality analysis. Thanks to the analysis we did, we knew very well what was ahead and what benefits it would bring. Our expectations were fulfilled to the letter. We have thus proven that in the interest of our efficiency, we can use the new system to make situational changes in production layout without exposing ourselves to excessive risk.”

    Marcin Binczyk concludes, “The success of the new system supporting the Sales & Operations Planning process follows a similarly successful system supporting Production Planning & Scheduling that we deployed into operation several years ago. Despite staffing reductions over the past several years, the planning team continues to achieve impressive results with the planning systems from LOGIS that were beyond our reach in the past.”

    Mr. Dalibor Konvicka, Chairman and CEO at LOGIS says, “So to speak, TimkenSteel is a matter of the heart for us. In the early 90s, it was the very first steelmaking company to apply advanced planning, and the very first customer of i2 Technologies, a pioneer in the world of APS. i2 developed the legendary i2 Factory Planner during their first project for this company. When we started the New Generation Planning project at Timken twenty years later, we were lucky to be working with people who were involved in these initial projects with i2. It was an amazing experience, since it was them who told us ‘Guide us, we trust you,’ and that was a big commitment. We put everything we had in it. We’re pleased and proud of what we have achieved together with the people from TimkenSteel.”

    About TIMKENSTEEL CORPORATION

    TimkenSteel (NYSE: TMST) manufactures high-performance carbon and alloy steel products from recycled scrap metal in Canton, OH, serving demanding applications in mobile, energy and a variety of industrial end markets. The company is a premier U.S. producer of alloy steel bars (up to 16 inches in diameter), seamless mechanical tubing and manufactured components. In the business of making high-quality steel for more than 100 years, TimkenSteel’s proven expertise contributes to the performance of our customers’ products. The company employs approximately 1,900 people and had sales of $831 million in 2020. For more information, please visit us at www.timkensteel.com.

    About LOGIS

    LOGIS is a provider of business services and a producer of Advanced Planning & Scheduling (APS) and Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP) software. The services and software of LOGIS enable its customers to achieve tangible improvements of operational efficiency and customer delivery performance. LOGIS has implemented approximately 100 planning systems around the world in the last quarter of century for customers in metals industry and discrete manufacturing (machinery, automotive, etc.). Its customers range from relatively small local producers to extremely complex, large-scale manufacturing enterprises with demanding planning environments.