Founded in Norway, ODLO offers performance sportswear across 6 categories: Functional Sports Underwear, Outdoor Performance, Running, Cycling, Activewear and Nordic Disciplines. The inventor of performance sports underwear and the three-layer principle, ODLO boasts a 70-year heritage, an annual turnover of 28 million USD and a strong commitment to innovation, and social and environmental sustainability. Its ambassadors include: Swiss-Ski (Nordic), Fédération Française de Ski (Nordic), Ski Association of Slovenia (Nordic), Norwegian Biathlon Association, Japan Biathlon Federation and the Scott-Sram MTB Racing Team, among many others. The company’s manufacturing arm, ODLO Romania S.R.L, based in Romania, produces over 2.4 million pieces a year and supports a workforce of just under 500.
Prior to implementing Coats Digital’s, GSDCost solution, ODLO based its cost and capacity forecasts on inaccurate historical data stored in multiple Excel spreadsheets which were difficult to update in real-time across all costing, capacity planning and manufacturing teams. As a result of inaccurate standard minute values (SMVs) regarding CM (Cost to Make) production times, and poor costing and planning visibility, ODLO occasionally failed to meet on time delivery targets, which meant steep additional overhead costs and customer complaints due to the often-last-minute realisation that there was a lack of actual capacity available on the production floor. Conversely, without accurate capacity planning and costing data, ODLO also found itself turning business orders away unnecessarily, when in fact it had sufficient capacity to easily fulfil new order requests.
Shortly after the adoption of GSDCost, ODLO undertook a rigorous GSDCost training programme so that relevant teams could gain a good theoretical understanding of GSDCost motion codes and standard core style sequences. The on-site training and practical session helped to foster greater team buy-in to the change management programme required internally to get the project fully embedded across all relevant departments.
As a result, business units can now confidently and fairly negotiate product prices with customers, and a more succinct single view of overall CM costs has enabled ODLO to reduce its SMVs on core styles by 13% and increase overall production efficiencies by 10%.
Following the implementation of GSDCost, ODLO was able to successfully establish international standard time benchmarks based on standard motion codes and predetermined times. This enabled the sales, costing, planning and manufacturing teams to communicate efficiently using the same language, based on a scientific method for correctly analysing manufacturing costs.
Since the adoption of GSDCost, ODLO has additionally been able to introduce a popular productivity bonus system based on accurate CM measurements, which has helped build team members’ confidence in achieving realisable productivity goals that increase their earning potential.
“Without a scientifically proven method to assess production goals or realistic Standard-Minute-Values to inform our costing and capacity plans, we were consistently challenged by a series of unexpected capacity issues. Not only did we sometimes experience higher production costs and late deliveries due to buffered SMVs, but we occasionally also turned business away, as we incorrectly estimated that resources were not available to meet requirements in time. Coats Digital’s GSDCost is the only solution that provides scientifically-assessed code generation analyses for various production tasks, and it was the obvious choice to ensure we could achieve rigorous, consistent data insights that would ultimately make a significant impact to our efficiency and profitability.” - Sampath De Silva, Administrator, ODLO Romania S.R.L
