Minimize ordering effort in vehicle production
Small orders: ROSENBAUER relies on DIG catalog platform
The thirty-strong purchasing team at the world market leader for firefighting technology manages around 11,600 one-off and small orders and requisitions at the Leonding site alone. In the medium term, the time spent on these activities is to be reduced to zero so that the resources freed up can be devoted to strategic purchasing, which is far more interesting.
"We fulfill customer wishes," explains Rosenbauer Lead Buyer Christian Raab, immediately addressing a central challenge in purchasing: "Our vehicles are special machines, every customer has different wishes - this results in many parts that entail one-off orders." All these small orders naturally take place outside the regulated purchasing process for direct materials - and therefore must be handled by strategic purchasing. "Regardless of whether ten euros is spent on a special handle or two thousand, the effort is the same: the buyer must also check the supplier for small orders, read the order conditions, make inquiries, compare offers, etc. Between half an hour and an hour is spent there on average."
Efficiently implemented by 2 specialists
Rosenbauer sees the high administrative effort involved in small orders as a worthwhile savings target: "In the procurement of direct material, VMI, and SRM, we have already been working for 10 years with curecomp, which brought its partner DIG into play for us for greater efficiency in small orders," recalls Raab of the initial presentation: "We realized that the effort could be reduced towards zero - and after deciding on the project in 2018, we very quickly began implementation!" For this, 6 months were planned: "After starting in July, we finished in November - thus one month earlier than planned. The timely completion and flexible coordination of all parties involved more than confirmed our decision! The DIG project manager, Ms. Semlak, is still available to us today for all handling questions."
Lead Buyer Christian Raab emphasizes that procurement costs are independent of value - and sees enormous potential in the area of small or C-part orders.
Perfect interaction of DIG and curecomp
The runtime was shortened primarily by the familiar interfaces of curecomp, another Linz-based provider, which allowed DIG to quickly dock the solution onto the existing structure: This is because the orders are transmitted from the catalog platform directly to the clevercure eProcurement system. Here, an order number is assigned from a defined number range and the order is sent on to the Rosenbauer ERP system.
The group's signature policy is perfectly mapped in the ERP system developed in-house and is reliably adopted by DIG eProcurement.
Release responsibilities transferred from ERP
"At Rosenbauer, we have clear Group specifications for the release of orders, which are mapped in our MAGIC ERP system - a proprietary development," says Raab, explaining the origin of the release responsibilities in terms of cost centers and value limits. These are regularly reconciled by DIG eProcurement via the interface, so that any personnel changes are made in MAGIC as usual and no maintenance work is required in the catalog itself. The responsibility of the respective purchaser, on the other hand, is determined by the supplier: "At Rosenbauer, these are assigned on a fixed basis. For approval, you then simply receive an e-mail with a link to more detailed information - the person responsible can either approve or reject the request simply by clicking on it."
ECLASS Mapping, three booking options
Through the ECLASS mapping, the G/L account assignment is done automatically, the number itself comes from the supplier. The purchaser, on the other hand, can select whether the procurement is posted to a specific cost center, a production order, or an investment request: "This can range from a laptop for an employee to larger projects with their own release processes - the various posting options in the catalog give us better options in the ERP system for tracking investments and a target/actual cost comparison."
High user acceptance
"Since January 2020, the catalog system has been used in live operation at the Rosenbauer site in Leonding," reports Raab, who is satisfied: "Of 1,500 employees with access to the system, 200 have placed around 400 orders - in view of the limited range of goods on offer during the test, the success to date has surprised us." Three suppliers are currently available with small IT and electronics materials as well as office supplies - the connection of two further suppliers and an increase in the range is planned in the short term. Raab is particularly pleased with the high level of acceptance among employees: "We deliberately equipped the system so that basically everyone has single sign-on access via our Active Directory; the catalog itself only controls which employee is allowed to see which catalog depending on their location. The decision on the specific order requested is always made by the cost center manager."
Single sign-on and a clear catalog display according to employee responsibility and competence make the ordering system easy and intuitive to use.
Further development in the coming years
"The Corona crisis caused delays, but the roll-out to other sites in Austria and Germany should take place next year at the latest." Internal catalogs will also be introduced in the process: "The order form to IT for the new laptop or for add-on parts from our plant in Neidling - we are currently drawing up the concept of how we can improve these internal processes with the catalog system." In two years, the ERP system will also be replaced: "We will switch to SAP S/4 HANA to be uniformly equipped across the Group. Then we will be able to integrate all global sites."
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