The established three-party model was key for successful solution implementation
Metsä Fibre, JAY Partners and Top Data Science joined forces in 2023 to design, develop and implement a next-generation business planning solution for Metsä Fibre’s sawn timber business. The objective was to test and validate if use of AI-based technologies could resolve challenges in responding to changing market conditions in a rapid and transparent manner.
Metsä Fibre’s goal was to maximize the revenue potential from forecast wood supply, considering complex production alternatives and key customer demand. It is practically impossible to create a rolling 18-month sales and operations plan based on forecasts without an advanced optimization solution due to a huge number of alternatives and permutations.
Petri Jokinen, partner at JAY Partners, highlights: “Metsä Fibre’s idea to enforce the three-party model in developing AI-based S&OP optimization is fascinating. We are pleased to have worked with Top Data Science in this assignment, and Metsä Fibre for choosing us to oversee that the business requirements were captured, industrial logic was implemented flawlessly in the optimization engine and the solution produced correct results.“
Feasibility of a multi-variable optimization method was validated in a Proof-of-Concept phase in spring 2023. Subsequently, the collaboration continued with a focus on further developing optimization to capture all key business requirements set by the S&OP team and other stakeholders, and further by developing an easy-to-use end-user application for Metsä Fibre. The optimization solution, now named SAMPO, was launched into production in February 2024.
“The collaboration throughout the project has been outstanding. The efficient integration of our business requirements with the technical expertise of our partners has resulted in a solution that not only meets but exceeds our expectations.”, states Veli-Matti Mäki, development manager at Metsä Fibre.
Kai Lehtinen, CEO at Top Data Science, comments: “The three-party model between Metsä Fibre team, JAY Partners and our team was proven to be excellent for implementing such a demanding solution in a fairly short time frame. By seamlessly combining the business requirements and data understanding with deep industrial logic expertise and AI technology know-how, we were able to develop a solution that was ready to go to production right away. I felt that there was high trust among partners and great shared focus on desired outcomes, which is a good recipe for success.“
Metsä Fibre now uses AI-based technology to respond quickly to changing market conditions. The solution enables sales and operations planning to create multiple parallel scenarios, while significantly improving their ability to utilize key customer demand forecasts instead of relying on historical production and order data.
“As we continue to learn from the process and extract insights from large volumes of structured data, we aim to expand SAMPO to support a wider range of functions beyond production and sales – such as raw material acquiring and logistics optimization.“, Veli-Matti Mäki concludes.
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For more information:
Veli-Matti Mäki, Development Manager, Metsä Fibre
Petri Jokinen, Partner, JAY Partners
Kai Lehtinen, CEO, Top Data Science
