Role-based work processes

It is therefore essential to standardize and centralize logistics. Karl Mayer, the international manufacturer of textile machinery, has expanded its previous system with an SAP-based solution to optimize the processes controlled by SAP. The Rule Workbench (RWB) and the Role Administration Cockpit (RAC) from SAP partner GIB have since ensured improved inventories and reduced operational processing times through role-based work processes.

Since its foundation in 1937, this German mechanical engineering company has developed into an international group of companies. Today, the company has subsidiaries in the USA, England, India, Italy, Hong Kong, Japan, China, Bangladesh and Switzerland.

International growth was a challenge for the logistics processes. There were no general rules across the company on how to calculate safety stock. Safety stocks were not checked at regular intervals, but only when there was an open purchase requisition. Dispatchers did not organize the daily schedule according to uniform guidelines.

"With this inventory planning, there was a high risk of inventories being too low or too high and thus also the risk of delayed production"Sonja Meyrose, head of the materials management department at Karl Mayer, recalls. The aim: to structure the daily routine of the schedulers and optimize inventory planning.

"It became clear to us that we needed a uniform solution in the company to better structure the daily routine of the dispatchers and thus make work more efficient. The newly gained time resources can then be used, for example, to plan safety stocks more professionally, also with a software", Meyrose said of the initial situation.

Since they had already been working successfully with the GIB Operations and Controlling modules for several years, they chose the same developer. The SAP partner specializes in optimizing logistics processes and the Rule Workbench (RWB) and Role Administration Cockpit (RAC) modules were to be used as a complementary solution to optimize processes in the logistics department.

Only six months passed from the start of the project to the go-live at the sites. Apart from a few adjustments, the implementation went smoothly. Today, around 100 users work with Operations, Controlling and RAC at all locations worldwide. RWB is currently only used in Germany. A rollout to China is being planned.

The users were positively surprised by the user-friendliness of the modules. The usage is almost self-explanatory, so the training time for the activity navigator was about half a day. Operations is a bit more intensive, requiring one to two days of instruction so that employees can also use this solution. Foreign sites were trained either on site or via video conference.

The introduction has generated positive effects for internal workflows. The Role Administration Cockpit eliminates searching and navigating in the SAP system and enables tasks to be completed in record time. The RAC hides unused functions, making it easier to navigate through the system. Regularly recurring tasks have to be planned once, like with an electronic organizer, so that the user can see all to-dos in the personalized mask, which can be called up with a double-click.

A great benefit for day-to-day business, Meyrose finds: "The creation of uniform standards in scheduling brings a great deal of transparency, a certain interchangeability in the event of illness or vacation and, above all, it makes daily doing easier, as each scheduler is clearly shown which activities are to be completed."

Inventory planning has also improved significantly, especially with regard to the missing parts display, which was completely transferred from Excel to GIB. The uniform use of the modules at all sites has significantly increased transparency in scheduling, because schedulers can now obtain an overview of inventories across the group and thus also optimize them better. "We no longer want to do without the new modules because the dispatchers can now work in a much more organized way. The success is noticeable in all areas", sums up Sonja Meyrose.