A Partnership Built on Expertise
Novelis sits at the top of two demanding industries. The company is the world’s market leader in rolling aluminum and a global leader in recycling, with operations spanning four regions, nine countries and more than 30 operating sites. Coordinating production at that scale takes more than effort. It takes a planning foundation that gives every team clear visibility, sharp decision support and the freedom to adapt. For Novelis, that foundation is DELMIA Quintiq.
Over the course of more than a decade, Novelis has deployed all three core DELMIA Quintiq planning levels: Scheduler, Company Planner and Macro Planner. Each one solves a different challenge, yet together they form a connected approach to production planning that keeps the business moving and customers satisfied.
The scheduler is basically also the the the origin of (DELMIA) Quintiq, right? Where you can feel the strength of the planning tool. It gives a lot of planner visualization, a lot of feedback, a lot of support. And this has widely been adapted in many of our plants,” said Joachim Alpers, DELMIA Quintiq Specialist at Novelis
Three Planning Levels Working Together
At the most detailed level sits DELMIA Quintiq’s Scheduler. This is where many planners feel the real strength of the platform. The Scheduler delivers rich visualization, immediate feedback and strong day-to-day support, and Novelis has adopted it widely. More than 10 plants now rely on it to build and manage their production schedules.
One step up is the Company Planner. Reaching full adoption here took a longer journey, one that involved careful configuration and steady buy-in from every party involved. Novelis worked through that process with focus, and the results speak for themselves. The Company Planner now drives automatic-order confirmation and supports campaign planning, where planners and customers are both happy with the outcome.
The company planner implementation for the Koblenz/Voerde plants was a very important project for us and we were very happy for the support of the DELMIA Quintiq consulatnts we received,” said Alpers
At the top level is the Macro Planner, used across Europe, Asias and North and South America as the long-term planning tool. Its optimizer functionality stands out. Key users can specify different input data sets, test what-if scenarios and adjust the capacity of selected resources to see the effect in real time. Those scenarios then become recommendations for the S&OP planning council. The tool gives planners both freedom and power, and Novelis uses every bit of it.
Key Users Who Own and Extend the Tool
Key Users Who Own and Extend the Tool
A capable platform matters, but the people behind it matter just as much. One of the clearest signs of success at Novelis is how key users have grown into true owners of the solution.
DELMIA Quintiq offers a wide range of configuration possibilities, and mastering them is a journey. At first, the power of an analysis grid or a configurable column isn’t obvious. Internal experts and consultants help explain those capabilities, and then the key users take over. They learn to configure and extend the tool themselves, working within sensible guardrails while pushing the solution further.
This sense of ownership shows up in everyday feedback. The Company Planner key users in Koblenz, for example, recently shared positive feedback about how far the tool has come. They don’t just use it. They drive future enhancements and pull for new capabilities. Internal IT then acts as a coordinator, bringing experience to the table and connecting the people, the process and the tool. That triangle of communication is what keeps the solution growing.
The long-term Macro Planner plans also feed the wider business. Today Novelis’ main use is on the reporting side, where Power BI reports help management discuss demand, capacity and the decisions that follow. Connecting those plans more directly to Company Planner is a clear opportunity for the future, with regions like Asia set to explore it next.
The Data Manager as a Bridge to Trust
Strong planning depends on strong data. About 10 years ago, Novelis faced a real challenge: gathering data from many legacy systems and presenting it in the right place and the right format for a data-hungry application like Company Planner. The answer was the DELMIA Quintiq Data Manager, delivered as part of that early project.
The value becomes obvious when you compare it to applications without one. There, data is a black box. A user receives data, or doesn’t, and has no easy way to investigate what went wrong. The Data Manager changes that. It acts as a bridge between the data sources and the final application, and it gives users the power to investigate issues without waiting on IT.
If a product shows constraint violations, the Data Manager points to the cause. It might flag a stocking point that hasn’t been maintained, giving the planner the right hint to act. From there, the planner can find the data source and fix it directly. That transparency is one of the biggest advantages Novelis sees from the platform every day.
Master Data and the People Behind It
Good data doesn’t maintain itself. From the start, Novelis recognized that getting the data right was one of the biggest factors in making the project a success. That commitment continues today through dedicated master data owners, who are responsible for keeping the master data correct and complete.
Maintaining accurate data in the right format is a large and ongoing part of their work. A production planner typically starts from the demand side, confirms that demand has arrived correctly, then checks the supply side to see whether everything expected is present. When something is missing, the planner contacts the master data team and the correction follows. This happens daily, and it’s exactly the kind of attention that keeps the planning engine reliable.
The takeaway is simple. Deploying a solution isn’t the finish line. Novelis keeps the focus on its tools because the people using them see clear value in return.
Real Value in Daily Operations
That value is most visible in order management. After a Company Planner run, order confirmations feed directly back into the order management system. For selected sales orders, the confirmation then moves on to the customer. Novelis isn’t just running software. It’s living the process end-to-end.
The Scheduler tells a similar story. Novelis produces in distinctive ways, including how plates move through the factory, so a standard configuration was never going to fit. The platform’s flexibility allowed Novelis to build special concepts that match its real operations. That adaptability proved central to the success of the Scheduler implementation, even in the most complex plants.
A Partnership Built on Expertise
The Company Planner implementation that began around 2015 was an important milestone. The platform offered a wealth of configuration freedom, which meant Novelis needed strong guidance to translate its wishes into working solutions. The consultants delivered exactly that.
Together, the teams worked through requirements such as pre-producing where possible and making full use of bottleneck resources. The seniority and experience the consultants brought made the difference, and Novelis remains very happy with the result.
That spirit of collaboration, paired with capable people and a flexible platform, is what continues to power planning excellence at Novelis today.
DELMIA, a Dassault Systèmes brand, connects the virtual and real worlds to drive innovation and sustainability. Powered by the 3DEXPERIENCE platform, our end-to-end solutions integrate virtual twins, industrial AI and augmented reality to optimize manufacturing, supply chains and workforces. We empower businesses to reduce waste and achieve sustainable, customer-focused operations, building a more resilient future.
Customer Marketing Lead DELMIA Quintiq