How Is Novelis Unlocking Supply Chain Value with o9?

At this year’s Gartner Supply Chain Symposium in Barcelona, Andreas Nickel, Global IT Lead for Supply Chain Applications at Novelis, took the stage to share an inside look at one of the metals industry’s most ambitious digital planning transformations. As the world leader in aluminum rolling and recycling, Novelis operates largely out of sight to the consumer, yet it plays a critical role in packaging, architecture, automotive, and aerospace supply chains. “Most people don’t know what Novelis does. We’re a pure B2B business,” Andreas opened. “But when you open a soda can or drive a lightweight vehicle, there’s a good chance our aluminum made it possible.”

Understanding the Scale and Challenge

Novelis’ European footprint is just one of four major global regions in its network, but each region operates with significant autonomy due to the nature of its products. “We produce massive coils of metal that pass through multiple sites before they reach the customer,” Andreas explained. “Each of our ten European manufacturing sites serves multiple product segments: beverage packaging, architectural specialties, automotive, and aerospace. And yet, the same customer might interact with different plants for different needs.”

This complexity, combined with legacy systems and historically siloed operations, created inefficiencies across the network. “We used to be plant-centric,” he said. “Everyone worked for themselves. But to meet rising customer expectations and optimize our operations, we needed to become connected. We needed what we call ‘metal flow’—a supply chain where the metal never stops moving.”

Why Digital Transformation. And Why Now?

Four years ago, Novelis embarked on a digital planning transformation using o9’s platform. The goal was to shift from fragmented Excel-based planning to a unified, end-to-end system. “We didn’t want another three-year ERP extension,” Andreas said. “We wanted something more agile and more flexible; something that would let us test modern, optimized planning algorithms quickly.”

The team’s north star was, and remains, value. “Productivity improvement was our primary goal,” Andreas said. “From there, we translated it into measurable KPIs: asset utilization, scrap input, OTIF, and CO₂ reduction.”

From Strategy to Execution to Value

Novelis began its transformation with a focused pilot, targeting a high-value, moderately complex product segment. The aim was clear: deliver results fast. “We were looking for a financial impact we could measure quickly. That meant selecting a product line that was meaningful but manageable.”

While supply chain disruptions have made it hard to isolate all gains, Andreas emphasized that visibility and responsiveness have improved dramatically since implementing o9. “Now we can see across the network in real-time. If something breaks at one plant, we understand the downstream impact. That didn’t exist before.”

With o9 in place, Novelis has effectively shifted from Excel-based, siloed planning to a regional model with more coordinated execution:

• Planners now use o9 to manage bottleneck assets and master production plans
• Plans are handed off to plant schedulers for final execution
• Network-wide visibility allows teams to adapt more quickly to disruption.

“We’ve moved from a plant view to a flow view. It’s a different mindset and a different way of working,” he explained. In line with their team’s north star, this new mindset and way of working have translated to measurable value, including:

• ~10% increase in recycled scrap input, thanks to smarter campaign planning and alloy optimization
• Reduced carbon emissions, aligned with Novelis’ broader circularity and sustainability goals
• Lower inventory levels, achieved without sacrificing service or shipment performance

Driving Adoption and Change

For Andreas, success hinged not only on technology but on people. “The hardest part of this journey wasn’t technical. It was change management,” he said. “People have personal relationships with their spreadsheets. Taking that away is disruptive.”

What made the difference was strong executive sponsorship. “Our regional president was directly involved. That kind of top-down commitment is essential,” he said. Novelis also built a cross-functional implementation team that combined centralized supply chain experts with on-the-ground plant planners. “We built it together,” Andreas emphasized. “That gave our teams ownership and trust.”

To support scale and adoption, Novelis established a Supply Chain Center of Excellence and invested in robust data governance. “Data accuracy is everything,” Andreas said. “You can hide bad data in a report. But with a planning system, it breaks everything. So we developed automated scripts to validate and clean the data continuously.”

Lessons for the Industry

Andreas closed with a reflection that resonated with many in the audience. “Technology is never the bottleneck. It’s always the people,” he said. “But if you can anchor your program in real value, secure leadership support, and involve your teams from day one, you can make it happen.” He also gave a nod to Novelis’ transformation partner. “We’ve had great collaboration with the o9 Delivery Team led by Probuddha Ganguly. The way we’ve worked together—agile, fast, and hands-on—was a big part of our success.”

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