Purchasing in Automotive becomes automatic!
eProcurement can grow with you: at Fertinger.
RF Fertinger is a medium-sized company with three production sites (two in Austria, one in Poland). TIER 2 supplier for the automotive sector, DIG eProcurement was introduced in 2011. In 2016, ispro-NG was added for the area of machine maintenance. This creates potential for improvement, which is currently being considered.
At Fertinger, eProcurement is seen as a growing part of a living organization. This refers to oxaion for direct material and the DIG platform for indirect material, with both systems being operated independently of each other. The latter is used at all Austrian sites: in 2020, 1,500 orders with a volume of € 1.5 million were placed by the 77 registered users alone. "Ten years ago, we started with eProcurement," recalls IT manager Dipl.-Ing. Helmut König. "Today, in addition to direct materials, Fertinger also orders operating supplies and office materials via one of the two platforms provided for this purpose."
Release processes by value and material group
"Especially in 2019, the platform helped us - even if there was less buying then," König says with a wink, referring to the company's successful rebalancing. "This is where the value of transparency has shown: The overview of what all is open in terms of volume, what orders are out, who is ordering what, and where to optimize - all of that helped us through the tough times!" The approval system put not-so-urgent purchases on the back burner: In DIG's eProcurement platform, authorized heads of departments need approval from purchasing or management, depending on the value threshold. "A separate workflow is also provided for certain groups of goods. For example, computers or smartphones always have to be approved by me," König describes.
Potential for more efficiency
The embedding of the ispro-NG maintenance software in the procurement workflow provides a differentiated picture: "While pneumatic spare parts, for example, are consistently created, others are not available on ispro. These then come as free text orders - for ball bearings, for example, this is regularly the case." In any case, the orders are placed centrally via DIG's platform. However, there is no interface to ispro-NG, where no orders are placed. König sees the fact that such an interface would also enable an exchange of information with oxaion as positive: "That would make it easier to reconcile stock levels between all systems. Likewise, a master data update between the ERP system and ispro-NG would be a significant advantage. "Overall, there is definitely potential to further increase efficiency in purchasing!" This also refers to the communication between oxaion and
DIG.procure: "At the time, we deliberately opted for a very lean version. Because of DIG's flexibility, we can create new possibilities with appropriate interfaces. We are currently discussing this."
Helmut König, who is responsible for IT, sees a lot of potential for business digitization at Fertinger.
Grown constellation offers opportunities
"The fact that people can now order directly noticeably relieves the burden on purchasing," König sums up the credit side. Compared to the past, the quality of information has also been improved: "There was often missing or incorrect information that went to purchasing. We even eliminate this problem with free-text forms by already obtaining quotations from the requirements department. That way, all the necessary details are automatically included." However, free-text orders are also used in the company for services: "Maintenance work, training, etc. are all procured this way!" And so well, in fact, that over 90% of all orders are already processed this way, which leads directly to the debit side of the considerations: "There are outliers in areas such as flight or hotel bookings. Even urgently needed repairs of any equipment, such as printers, often go their own way."
Guided buying as a possible expansion stage
"We only hear good things about the system from our colleagues," says König, who is satisfied with DIG's eProcurement platform. In addition to physical catalogs, individual suppliers are connected via an OCI punchout. Only recently, 17.5 million items were made available in Austria with the connection of the Mercateo supplier platform, in order to be able to procure one-off requirements in an uncomplicated and transparent manner. "We discovered this for ourselves through our sister company in Germany. The huge range makes it easier to offer the right selection in every situation." At the same time, however, this also necessitates a certain degree of control: "For cell phones, for example, we have a fixed partner, whom I in turn request away from the system, because we don't have a catalog or the like here. A lot would be gained with a guidance system that specifies the right paths for the individual procurement fields!" Indeed, at Fertinger, guided buying as an add-on could improve the performance of eProcurement in a simple way - and an interface to ispro-NG could create further advantages. "Particularly with growing systems, it is worthwhile to regularly take a new look at the processes and analyze optimization potential," confirms König.
