Leveraging Capacity Planning, SAP Business One, and MRP to Improve Visibility, Customer Commitments, and Operational Performance

As manufacturers grow, success often creates new challenges. Backlogs increase. Customer expectations rise. Capacity becomes constrained. Planning processes become more complex. And without the right systems and processes in place, growth can become difficult to manage. This was the situation facing Avtron Power Solutions.

LMA partnered with Avtron Power Solutions to design and develop capacity planning capabilities so that the company could gain visibility into future demand, support rapid growth, and confidently commit delivery dates to customers. With more than a year’s worth of revenue sitting in open sales orders, Avtron needed a better understanding of future capacity requirements to plan staffing, suppliers, equipment investments, manufacturing expansion, and production across facilities and subcontractors.

Because much of the business is engineer-to-order (ETO) and configure-to-order (CTO), gaining visibility into demand before detailed engineering designs were complete was critical to success. The company needed a way to look beyond today’s orders and proactively prepare for tomorrow’s opportunities.

Creating Visibility into Future Demand

The first priority was developing a clearer view of future demand and operational requirements. To accomplish this, LMA worked with Avtron to analyze sales orders, quotes, forecasts, and interbranch demand. The team estimated key product groupings, translated demand into capacity requirements, and allocated anticipated workload to the appropriate work centers.

Labor requirements were also estimated so leadership could understand future staffing needs and identify potential bottlenecks before they impacted customers. This process created visibility into demand months into the future, allowing the company to make proactive decisions related to:

• Staffing and workforce planning
• Supplier commitments
• Equipment purchases
• Manufacturing expansion
• Production allocation among facilities
• Subcontractor utilization

Most importantly, the organization gained the ability to communicate more confidently with customers regarding expected delivery dates.

Building a Proactive SIOP Process

After gaining visibility into future demand, Avtron needed a process to translate that information into actionable decisions. LMA helped establish a proactive SIOP (Sales Inventory Operations Planning) process that connected sales forecasts, operational capabilities, material requirements, and capacity constraints. Rather than reacting to demand after orders were received, leadership gained the ability to look ahead and make informed decisions about growth opportunities, resource requirements, and operational priorities. The SIOP process created a framework for profitable growth while improving alignment between sales, operations, procurement, engineering, and manufacturing.

Improving SAP Business One and MRP Utilization

At the same time, the company had recently completed a rapid SAP Business One implementation as part of its carve-out from a larger organization. While the system was operational, many planning processes still relied heavily on spreadsheets and manual workarounds. Key MRP capabilities were not being fully utilized, limiting the value the organization could receive from its ERP investment. LMA worked closely with Avtron’s business users, SAP consultants, planners, buyers, and operations teams to identify opportunities for improvement. 

A significant amount of foundational work was required, including:

• Item property setup improvements
• Bill of material enhancements
• Routing refinements
• Production facility configuration updates
• MRP parameter optimization
• Data integrity improvements
• Evaluation of phantom bills of material versus detailed transaction processing
• Exception management and planning recommendations

The objective was to create a planning environment that balanced operational realities with planning requirements while maintaining high customer service levels.

Moving Beyond Spreadsheet Planning

A blueprint was developed to dramatically reduce day-to-day planning workload while improving the effectiveness of MRP. The team moved from relying heavily on spreadsheets and manual planning activities toward using SAP Business One and its advanced planning system (APS) capabilities as the primary planning platform. As MRP functionality improved, planners gained access to more meaningful recommendations, exception messages, and planning outputs. The system became increasingly capable of supporting planning decisions rather than simply serving as a transactional tool. This shift provided a scalable foundation that could support future automation, increased demand, and continued business growth.

Inventory Optimization and Service Improvement

Inventory management represented another important opportunity. To support customer demand and maintain service levels, the organization had previously increased inventory levels. As planning capabilities matured and visibility improved, leadership recognized the opportunity to right-size inventory while continuing to support growth. Improved demand visibility, stronger planning processes, and enhanced MRP functionality enabled better inventory decisions across the organization. The result was a more balanced approach that supported customer service objectives while reducing unnecessary inventory investment.

The Results

Through its partnership with LMA Consulting Group, Avtron achieved significant improvements across planning, systems, and operational performance:

• Improved visibility into future demand and capacity requirements
• Enhanced customer delivery commitments
• Established a proactive SIOP process
• Improved staffing, supplier, and capacity planning
• Increased utilization of SAP Business One and MRP
• Reduced reliance on spreadsheets and manual planning
• Improved data integrity and planning effectiveness
• Right-sized inventory while maintaining customer service
• Created a scalable planning foundation to support continued growth

Most importantly, the company gained the visibility, planning discipline, and system capabilities necessary to support record levels of revenue while improving responsiveness to customers.

Creating a Foundation for Sustainable Growth

Technology alone does not drive growth. Success requires the ability to connect people, processes, systems, and decision-making into a cohesive planning framework. By improving capacity planning, implementing a proactive SIOP process, optimizing SAP Business One, strengthening MRP capabilities, and improving inventory management, Avtron created a stronger foundation for profitable growth and operational excellence. The result was greater visibility, improved customer commitments, stronger planning capabilities, and the ability to support continued expansion with confidence.

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Published: January 27, 2025 | Updated: June 5, 2026