Atlas Copco Airpower

AI production scheduling for 25% faster flow at Atlas Copco Airpower

See how Atlas Copco Airpower and 24Flow brought AI scheduling to the coating ovens: the system suggests the best batch, the operator decides, and a live score shows how good the choice was.

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Atlas Copco using AI-driven production scheduling for faster flow

Goal

Which orders go into
the oven together?

In the Z-Coat area at Atlas Copco Airpower, operators decided that by gut feeling, and every shift decided differently.

What Atlas Copco Airpower wanted

The goal of this project: fill the coating ovens better, with less waiting before each batch and the same decisions on every shift.

See how 24Flow works for machine builders and industrial equipment manufacturers.

About Atlas Copco Airpower

Atlas Copco Airpower is part of the Atlas Copco Group, an industrial technology company founded in Sweden in 1873. The group develops compressors and industrial gas solutions, vacuum solutions, power equipment, and industrial tools and assembly solutions for manufacturers.

Active in Belgium since 1955, Atlas Copco Airpower has supported Belgian industry for more than 70 years.

Challenges

Gut feeling, idle ovens
and no feedback.

Before 24Flow, oven planning in the Z-Coat area depended on who was on shift.

01

Planning by gut feeling

Operators grouped oven batches on intuition, so decisions and results changed from day to day.

02

Artificial bottlenecks

Ovens were reserved too early or left empty, which cost time and energy.

03

No feedback

Operators had no live feedback on whether a batch was a good choice.

04

Every shift its own logic

Without one shared logic, each shift made different calls on the same orders.

Solution

AI suggests the batch.
The operator decides.

Oven scheduler

In the Z-Coat area, 24Flow suggests the best grouping of new and waiting orders, so the ovens run fuller and stand idle less.

Operators stay in charge

The system advises, the operator decides.

  • Orders that wait too long are highlighted.
  • Suggested batch combinations cut oven time and energy waste.
  • A live score compares each operator’s choices with the AI solver.
  • The better the team scores, the harder the solver is to beat, so the bar keeps rising.

Simple on every shift

A clear screen, a score anyone can follow and feedback right away.

Checked in simulation

The scheduling gains were confirmed with a simulation model from Evoma, which helped every supplier in the project agree on the approach.

Flanders Make accelerator program

Part of a program to keep
production local.

Flanders Make supported 6 leading companies (Vandewiele, Picanol, Atlas Copco, CNH, Crop’s and Sabca) in fully sustainably digitizing their high-mix-low-volume production over a period of 5 years through the accelerator program with 6 end-to-end digital pilot production lines for digital transformation. These leading companies and Flanders Make, together with the Flemish authorities (Department of Work, Economy, Science, Innovation & Social Economy – WEWIS, and Flanders Innovation & Entrepreneurship – VLAIO) worked out a new co-development platform. Based on a pilot line approach, selected SMEs (Accelerator R&D suppliers) could validate their R&D in real production environments and obtain relevant testimonials to scale-up their innovative solutions. The results are an inspiration for other production companies to also take the necessary steps to safeguard local production. This program (contract number VV021/08) is supported by the Flemish Resilience Recovery Plan.

Atlas Copco logoFlanders Make logoVlaamse overheid logo

Impact

Fuller ovens,
shorter waits.

25
%

faster flow at Atlas Copco Airpower

25%

Shorter oven time: 25% reduction in oven time. Better grouping, confirmed in the Evoma simulation.

15%

Higher OEE: 15% improvement in OEE. The result of several improvements together, with the scheduler as a key part.

15%

Less waiting before the oven: 15% reduction in WIP wait time. Faster stacking decisions and fewer orders waiting for a batch.

More engaged operators

The score made decisions more consistent across shifts.
24

Talk to our team

Which bottleneck decides
your lead time?

Tell us about your production. In a free demo, we show how 24Flow schedules around your bottleneck.
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