The Dinex transformation
It all started in 2019, when Mads Kaa Schou Nielsen became responsible for the group supply chain for the OEM segment at Dinex. It was clear that a change needed to happen, and a more digitalized and automated solution was long overdue.
This was the start of a transformation in how Dinex works (and has continued to work) with its supply chain. Today, Dinex operates with end-to-end Sales and operation Planning, including everything from customer involvement in forecasting to purchasing and production.
Continue reading to gain insight into Mads Kaa Schou Nielsen’s consideration of collaborating with Perito Consulting (part of Roima Intelligence since 2023) and an overview of the Dinex setup and end results.
Who is Dinex?
Company: Dinex
Customer since: 2019
Visit website here
Dinex Group is a leading global manufacturer of innovative exhaust and emission systems for diesel engine commercial vehicles and gas engine industry. Dinex Group produces more than 95% of all material for its complete exhaust systems – from turbo to tailpipe – including advanced emission technologies.
Data overload at Dinex
When Mads Kaa Schou Nielsen started at Dinex in 2019, he first noticed the company’s short planning horizon. The company rarely looked more than twelve weeks ahead, which meant that the decisions they made regarding capacity were always extremely risky. Mads wanted to lengthen this timeframe and started by having sales and operations put in place.
“We started producing lots and lots of spreadsheets and having meetings after meetings to figure things out: ‘How are we going to do this, and how do we make things work for us?.”
Once they started with the sales and operations planning, they had excess data. The spreadsheets helped Dinex to pinpoint the crucial areas of their datasets. They tried to focus on the data that mattered and called the strategy the “management by exception” principle. However, the spreadsheets soon became a very heavy workload. In the end, the data became too overwhelming to handle manually. They needed a more intelligent way to handle their data:
“The spreadsheets got too heavy for us to work with. We knew we needed to optimize, and we knew we needed a more digitalized and smarter solution than what we were doing.”
To fulfill its needs, Dinex scouted the environment for the right partner. The company came across Perito Consulting and its Integrated Business Planning solution on this journey.
S&OP: Succeeding in management by exception
The initial goal was to figure out how to digitalize their spreadsheets and eliminate time spent arguing about the numbers. Instead, the focus should switch to what to do with those numbers. This is what the PERITO IBP 360° solution was created for. Mads elaborates:
“This tool helped us manifest this management by exception principle. It also helped us fill in the blanks in our spreadsheets, making our overall datasets more accurate.”
Dinex operates in different markets. In Europe, businesses operate according to a long customer forecast. However, the environments in Asia, Russia, etc., are much more unstable, creating shorter timeframes. Dinex, therefore, needed to fill in the gaps using forecasting:
“We needed to move to a more advanced system and get the whole cycle plotted out. We included everything we could, including inventory planning.”
Mads explains that Dinex is planning even further integration of other processes, like budgeting. Dinex’s goal is to involve more and more stakeholders as they move toward creating an even more resilient yet efficient supply chain.
Automating the management by exception principle
An automation of the “management by exception” strategy was implemented into Dinex’s supply chain. This functionality would help respond to abnormal situations by automating supply chain processes. Basically, instead of focusing on all data, only the exceptions are handled manually, as they deviate from the automated and “business-as-usual” data.
Mads explains why this automation was useful for them:
“We have 1000s of SKUs, making it impossible to go through every single one. We just concluded that could never happen. Instead, we have highlighted data that needed manual attention,” he explains and continues. We know when to react and when to contact our customers. We can locate the specific customers we need to investigate to understand what is going on.“
Furthermore, Mads explains how once the specific customers are pinpointed, the solution makes it possible to readjust the inventories. They can tell if the inventories need an adjustment at any given time. They can redirect before it is too late.
Key results for Dinex’s S&OP
The key results of Dinex’s switch to a PERITO IBP 360° solution is clear to Mads, who emphasizes especially how beneficial the transparency of their data across the company has been:
”The one thing I’m proud of is how everybody is included in where Dinex is heading. Everybody is looking at the same data across our different teams and locations. People are taking up more responsibility, as they can see the positive outcomes.”
Moreover, using a more intelligent system has enabled Dinex to make better and more proactive decisions. This has been particularly crucial during and after the Corona crisis. Dinex’s overall understanding of data has improved along with the improvements in decision-making. By understanding the complexities of their supply chain figures, they have experienced more accurate numbers across the board:
“We have reduced our inventories quite a lot. The same goes for expediting shipments and the like. We see the effects of organizing and upgrading from our previous poor planning.”
We are looking forward to seeing what intelligent and optimized solutions the future holds for Dinex and its supply chain, and we are excited to be part of their journey.
