Silent Night - Push-me-Pull-you Planning

In July 2001 Krofire Knowledge Enterprises Ltd engaged it Professional IT Services ONLY with a UK Furniture Manufacturer. The Contract was with Parker Knoll and Silent Night Holdings Ltd on behalf of our partners at Whitehouse Consultants. Some of the engagement was at the the Chipping Norton site, in Oxfordshire, from August 2001. Additionally, 20% of the time was spent in Edmonton North London.

They have 2 mfg sites; one in Edmonton originally scheduled for Go-Live at the end of November 2001, and one in Chipping Norton due to go live mid-2002. They make high-end household furniture. Edmonton is cabinets, tables etc...Chipping Norton is suites, armchairs etc.

The Edmonton site (left).

Much of the work conducted was limited to one day a week so there was limited scope for deep life-cycle solution development. However, there was ample scope to set the implementation on the right track. The previous work had sent the small team down the wrong path and headed them to an overly complicated Planning solution unsuited to their Business. Krofire set the record straight, simplified the Planning and configured the Shop Floor Control system around the Superbackflush-way of working.

The Parker Knoll factories both operated on a twin cycle basis like DePuy. However, unlike DePuy, who pushed a single Work Order through the Factory using a phantom Bill of Material for the Packaging, Parker Knoll would operate a two-WO system. One side of the factory made the basic wood components from Raw Materials. These were then stored in a central stores before kitting to Work Orders for the Final Assembly and finishing of furniture. They had a big challenge in the Planning to prevent the stock-outs and over-stocking of the Components. They struggled to plan this production in such a way that kept the machines running. Essentially the Components were 'pushed' into stores based upon capacity driven factors only.

The challenge for Assembly side of the Business was that its work was 'pulled' through the factory based upon the loading of lorries at the back gate. Production was planned such that the lorries would be full. This lead to the proposed used of ECS Load Planning features in OneWorld Xe. Customers (Retail Stores) were promised delivery in weekly slots with planning based upon a Friday delivery. Then the deliveries were back-loaded through the week.

This combination of 'push-me-pull-you' planning was always going to be a unique challenge for Silent Night.

Sadly the parent Company closed the doors on Parker Knoll three years later. Despite initial investments, after takeover, it seems that Furniture Manufacture within the UK is somewhat of a dwindling art. Krofire is a Business Software Services Company that once performed a Contract for Silentnight Holdings (parent of Parker Knoll).

Krofire is not in the furniture business. We can't tell you who is. Please do not call us or engage us in correspondance concerning the Business affairs of Parker Knoll.