The encyclopedia · Engineering & Operations · Strategic decision · 2005–2013
Heracles Cement ran its whole Greek supply chain on one mathematical-programming platform.
Greece's largest cement maker built one math platform for every supply chain decision, earning savings at every level.
Heracles General Cement Company (Lafarge Group)
The solution
Heracles General Cement Company, a member of the Lafarge Group, is the largest producer of cement in Greece. In 2005 it decided to improve the efficiency of its supply chain.
The company's analysts developed SCOP—a supply chain optimization and planning platform based on mathematical programming. Management uses it to set operational response policies to demand and production fluctuations, run mid- and long-term planning, evaluate what-if scenarios, solve network optimization problems, and choose tactics for strategic decisions.
SCOP improved Heracles' global supply chain performance and delivered substantial savings at both operational and strategic levels.
Why it worked
- One platform lets operational, tactical, and strategic decisions share the same model of the chain.
- What-if analysis turns planning into a conversation about alternatives, not a fixed answer.
- It replaced local, plant-level planning with a company-wide optimum.
What can be applied
A single planning platform beats scattered local tools when decisions interact across plants and time horizons; embed the model in how managers ask questions, not just in reports.
Aftermath
SCOP remained in use guiding Heracles' supply chain operations, and the case was published in Interfaces in 2013.
Sources
- Supply Chain Optimization and Planning in Heracles General Cement Company
- Supply Chain Optimization and Planning in Heracles General Cement Company
- Supply Chain Optimization and Planning in Heracles General Cement Company
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