IBM Technologies Help Improve Ski Production and Skiing



    Blizzard Sport has been producing skis and equipment, accessories for skiers for more than half a century. Since the 1950s, this company has created millions of pairs of skis and at least a number of different accessories. Annually, Blizzard produces about 400 thousand pairs of skis; the model range includes about 900 different models. Here, both ordinary skis, and racing skis, freestyle skis. In the manufacture of skis, more than 50 thousand types of various materials are used.

    But times are changing, even the climate is changing, and with it the needs of ski lovers. But the manufacturer needs to know these needs, because the equipment and its types must also meet the requirements of consumers. If you do not follow the trends, you can get significant losses instead of the expected profits, because the production line needs to be rebuilt in case of changes, and this takes time. And here high technologies come to the rescue, in particular, powerful computer systems and software from IBM, which allow reducing the time required for changes by a separate production cycle, as well as improving monitoring of product quality.

    What did you have to do?



    The main task of the manufacturer, at the operational level, is to minimize equipment downtime due to changes in a particular production line. In addition, defective goods (packaging problems, accessories, etc.) bring significant losses to the company. Monitoring such defects is no less important than restructuring the production line.
    You can try to identify the main defects for various ski models - in order to correct production shortcomings, and minimize the appearance of defective products.



    What was done?



    Blizzard invited IBM partner BI plus GmbH to collaborate. It is a Vienna-based provider of smart business solutions. Partner solutions are primarily based on the IBM Cognos portfolio. BI plus was able to create a self-learning marriage detection system, which, in turn, was integrated into the Blizzard manufacturing process.

    Sensors of such a system were installed at key production points, and data for processing began to arrive, and in large quantities. The IBM Cognos Data Manager software package works with data, which processes the data, unifies it, and sends it to the Blizzard common database.

    Additional key elements of the system include:
    • Applications of IBM Cognos Business Intelligence V10 and IBM Cognos Express, which are used by Blizzard for reporting, analysis, graphical visualization of analysis results;
    • IBM Cognos 10 Enterprise Planning - a software package that allows a company to predict changes in the supply of the right materials and systems in a changing market;
    • The IBM Cognos TM1 software package used for collective planning, analysis and forecasting / budgeting;
    • IBM Cognos Controller - used to determine the financing of certain areas of production. Results: • Reducing the production cycle time by 53%, from 38 to 18 days, by reducing the number of unnecessary actions;





    • Decrease in the inventory base level by 49%, from 772 thousand euros to 392 thousand;
    • 40% reduction in the amount of materials for the inventory base.

    As mentioned above, to achieve the result, sensors and detectors of the system were installed at all key production points.
    The level of analysis was raised to unprecedented heights, in terms of increasing the effectiveness of analytical work, using the data obtained to draw up plans. As an example, one of the results can be cited when it was discovered that longer skis require 20% more production cycle time. The measures taken by staff helped to reduce the time spent on the entire production line by 30%.

    The detection of problem areas of the production process allowed the support team to quickly respond to problems and solve them in the shortest possible time, preventing the occurrence of marriage.

    The production has become truly “transparent”, understandable both for management and for individual employees.

    What software was used?

    Business Intelligence : Cognos TM1; Cognos Business Intelligence Cognos 10; Cognos Controller Cognos Planning Cognos 8 BI Data Manager SPSS Statistics; SPSS Data Collection.
    Production and assembly : F&A: Integrated Industry Framework

    As a conclusionwe can say that after the implementation of the software from IBM it turned out to remove the “black boxes” of the production process, when it was impossible to understand exactly what factors affect what, and what can be changed if something is added or removed. Now the production cycle is completely transparent, and the result of the work can be compared with the plan in real time.

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