Three years ago, Miele made a decision: In the future, mobile processes were to be established in maintenance. Most of the plants of the traditional German company use the SAP module EAM for maintenance. The associated processes are manually controlled and information runs on paper. The extensive search for a system that could meaningfully supplement SAP EAM with digital processes resulted in the decision for OPRA at the beginning of 2018. Since the beginning of 2019, the SAP-based application from DATAGROUP for the maintenance of mobile and stationary systems and devices has been available for all Miele plants. Using process-oriented user interfaces, the application provides comprehensive and contextual information at the touch of a button on any mobile device. OPRA is fully integrated into SAP and enhances the EAM module with a user-friendly process design
Oliver Braun from the “Smart Maintenance” department at Miele & Cie. KG has been working in the appliance manufacturing plant at the Gütersloh site for 33 years. “What we particularly liked about OPRA in a detailed comparison with competitor products was the embedding without interfaces in SAP and the very coherent user guidance. The license model in connection with SAP was also interesting. Overall, DATAGROUP offered the most economical alternative,” he says, explaining the product decision.
DATAGROUP uses the Fiori Client SAP for its maintenance solution and thus picks up the concept of the new SAP user interfaces in its software – another plus point for Miele. Fiori runs on any browser, on the PC as well as on the tablet or smartphone. The maintenance software also accesses SAP directly, without interfaces or middleware in between.
The practical OPRA deployment at Miele started at the German sites in Gütersloh, Bielefeld and Oelde; the international plants are to be added step by step in the short to medium term. The laundry care competence center is located in Gütersloh. Dishwashers and vacuum cleaners are manufactured in Bielefeld, stoves and ovens in Oelde. In Gütersloh alone, around 5,250 people work for Miele. The production equipment in these plants is now maintained with OPRA, as is the technical building equipment. Using the OPRA apps on their mobile devices, the maintenance staff can filter out their own jobs and directly charge back the working time spent.
This relieves the administrative area enormously. In OPRA, operating instructions and all other documents for the relevant component are stored behind each order and can be displayed. “At the point of value creation, everyone has all the information they need,” says Oliver Braun. When inspecting a lift truck, for example, no one has to fill out a piece of paper with the master data, scan it and save it in SAP. The individual items of a checklist are checked off directly on the mobile device, and at the end OPRA automatically generates an inspection report as a PDF and stores it in Miele’s document management system.
Cross-Plant Services is a separate department with its own maintenance team. This department also works with the new solution in the entire range of possible applications: whether in the forklift workshop, for the maintenance of dock levellers, for safety inspections of fire doors, repairs of sanitary facilities, and much more. At the final stage, 400 mobile devices will be distributed at Miele with the OPRA client, at all – also – foreign sites that currently work with SAP. Smaller plants without SAP will follow. In addition, Miele wants to integrate its production workers, who are traditionally involved in the maintenance process, via OPRA as well.
In the meantime, the software release 2.2.2 has been successfully introduced in close cooperation. Many individual wishes on the part of Miele have been incorporated into the upgrade to the new release.
Henriette Wander
Henriette.Wander@datagroup.de
+49 731 93542-815
Miele is the world’s leading supplier of premium domestic appliances for cooking, baking, steam cooking, refrigeration/freezing, coffee preparation, dishwashing, laundry and floorcare. In addition, there are dishwashers, washing machines and dryers for commercial use, as well as washer-disinfectors and sterilizers for medical facilities and laboratories (Professional business area). Founded in 1899, the company operates eight production sites in Germany, one plant each in Austria, the Czech Republic, China, Romania and Poland, as well as the two plants of the Italian medical technology subsidiary Steelco Group. Sales in fiscal 2020 were around 4.5 billion euros (of which in Germany: 29.5 percent). Miele is represented in nearly 100 countries/regions by its own sales companies or through importers. Worldwide, the fourth-generation family-run group employs around 20,900 people, about 11,050 of them in Germany. The company is headquartered in Gütersloh, Westphalia.
For the cytostatics product group, Teva’s existing SAP consignemt app was to be adapted to the new processes due to a new warehouse structure. Teva chose DATAGROUP as its redesign partner. With the new app, cytostatics can be picked smartly by scan and touch. Via this mobile solution, employees have an overview of what is currently in the consigment worklist at all times.
The goal of the project was to adapt an existing web app to a redesigned order process. The existing app was part of a larger app infrastructure developed in-house by Teva, which had many interfaces with existing architectures and legacy systems.
The challenge for DATAGROUP was to adapt the app in this complex framework so that it both met the new requirements and took into account the existing interactions. DATAGROUP succeeded in implementing these requirements of Teva accordingly and adapting the app to the processes.
Process reliability is ensured by this mobile solution and supporting scanner function.
The app offers the possibility to scan and verify the storage location as well as the goods and container barcodes via a counter-scan. This represents a fundamental simplification in the process. Furthermore, the app covers different picking structures – from a single package to a full original carton. Depending on the selected process, users use a barcode on a transport tray for single picking or stick a continuous barcode on an original carton. These barcodes can be used at any time to identify what contents are in the package and to which customer shipment the package belongs. This process gives Teva a real-time overview of which deliveries have already been processed and which are still open.
With the help of the app, the picker also has the option of directly posting an inventory. As soon as a storage bin becomes empty during the picking process – whether due to a regular stock reduction of the bin to zero or a difference booking – the app automatically opens an inventory window in which an inventory booking can be confirmed.
Another benefit of the app is that during the picking process, damaged goods can be booked out directly at the storage location using the mobile solution. This makes the work of the pickers much easier and supports them directly in their processes.
Gerhard Wies
Senior Sales Manager
Gerhard.Wies@datagroup.de
M +49 160 96923745
T +49 731 93542-188
Our approximately 2,400 employees work every day to simplify access to medicines for millions of people and give patients back a bit of independence. Be it through our medicines – innovative specialty drugs, generics and over-the-counter drugs – a favorable price or a special service. With ratiopharm, Germany’s best-known pharmaceutical brand also belongs to Teva Germany.
Teva’s German headquarters is in Ulm. Another production site is in Blaubeuren/Weiler.
DATAGROUP took over the IT carve-out from the former parent company for STARK Germany, a leading construction retailer. In the future, DATAGROUP will manage Service Desk, Data Center, Mobile Device Management, End User Services and Network Services in IT outsourcing for the company.
In the course of the carve-out from the former parent company Saint Gobain, DATAGROUP not only reorganized the complex underlying infrastructure, but also equipped the approximately 5,000 employees with new end devices.
Saint Gobain’s relatively complex infrastructure and IT requirements meant that the standard migration approach via Veeam backup software could not be implemented. DATAGROUP therefore chose an agile approach in close cooperation with the French IT department of the former parent company. The servers were backed up to hard drives and transported by car to Germany, where they were restored at the DATAGROUP data center. Thanks to this unusual but flexible approach, the migration was completed without any impact on the daily work of Stark employees.
The user devices also had to be reset. The aim was to design the backup of the user data as simple as possible. DATAGROUP developed its own tool for this purpose. Via a stick, the users can download the tool from their own intranet, can backup all data via a simple, intuitive interface and transfer it via the stick to the new PC. Data sovereignty thus remains with the customer. With the new devices, the users are fully operational again in just 30 minutes.
Following the IT carve-out, DATAGROUP will provide the following services to STARK in the future:
Hartmut Graf
T +49 2241 904 225
hartmut.graf@datagroup.de
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STARK Deutschland GmbH is part of the STARK GROUP, headquartered in Copenhagen. As Germany’s leading building materials retailer, STARK Deutschland is at the forefront of 11 strong building materials brands at 220 locations.
From generalists to specialists, from building construction to civil engineering, STARK in the network supplies all the building materials that professionals from a wide range of trades need. Including a wide range of helpful services.
As part of a carve-out from the American parent company, Granovit introduced SAP S/4HANA. In addition, the complex interface landscape was mapped to a well-defined, narrow timeline.
Granovit AG is a feed manufacturer with around 200 employees at three locations in Switzerland. The dry food is mainly produced for farm animals, but also for zoo and pet animals. Raw material procurement and sales of finished products take place predominantly within Switzerland.
The SAP system at the time of the project’s beginning was recently introduced by the US parent company and did not optimally integrate Granovit’s processes and tools.
As part of the carve out, SAP S/4HANA was introduced and implemented in just 9 months in order to map the SAP processes in standard, consolidate the complex interface landscape and to reduce third-party systems wherever possivle. Furthermore, the overall complexity and IT costs were reduced.
DATAGROUP carried out redesign workshops for sales, quality management, logistics and production planning as well as finances and controlling in order to optimize all company core processes according to the SAP standard. Subsequently, the new processes, including the interface landscapes, were implemented in the form of rapid prototyping.
After successful testing and training, the new S/4HANA system landscape was put into operation at three production sites. Previously defined goals, such as the replacement of MII (production integration) as well as higher cost transparency with monthly pre- and post-costing of production costs, were achieved through the project.
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Brigitte Wallesch
T +49 89 996 872 255
brigitte.wallesch@datagroup.de
employees
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Granovit AG is an independet Swiss company, which emerged from the merher of the two brands Provimi Kliba and Protector in November 2017.
The company has more than 50 years of experience in animal nutrition in the Swiss market. Today, it offers high-performance animal nutrition solutions based on the latest research findings for farm animals as well as zoo and pet animals.
Granovit AG has three production sites in Lucens VD, Kaiseraugst AG and Gossau SG and sells its products throughout Switzerland.
Their products are predominantly made from Swiss-produced cereals and always in strict compliance with current food safety standards. They are free from GMO-declared starting materials and the processed raw materials are fully traceable.
Clarins Germany has outsourced its IT operations to DATAGROUP. Since then, a professional IT help desk for all IT related questions (1st level support) is available to the 150 Clarins users.
The objective of the outsourcing project was to achieve measurable competitive advantages from IT. The mid-sized company could no longer meet the expenses of maintaining the necessary bandwidth of know-how in house.
“Our expenses for this project are really an investment“, explains the Director of Finance & Administration when commenting on the reasons for this direction by his company. The goal of this outsourcing project was to gain measurable competitive advantages from IT.
Within the context of a six-month pre-project, the IT infrastructure of Clarins Germany was revised and standardized. Server processes were consolidated and centralized. Consequently, Clarins gave their entire IT operations, including the service desk, to DATAGROUP.
Michael Freuwoerth
T +49 221 964 86 246
michael.freuwoerth@datagroup.de
Clarins Deutschland GmbH, located in Starnberg near Munich is the German sales subsidiary of the French Cosmetics giant, Clarins. This family business, founded in 1954 and headquartered in Paris, has 6,000 employees in 150 countries worldwide. Clarins is a leading provider of premium cosmetics, beauty, and wellness products. In addition to the company’s own broad product palette under the Clarins label, the brands Thierry Mugler and Azzaro are also part of the Clarins group.
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