Flexible, modern and future-proof ERP software

Three North Rhine-Westphalia firms have opted for the automotive component of the abas Business Software, a flexible, modern and future-proof ERP software.

The products of three innovative companies from the east of North Rhine-Westphalia are daily being used in millions of vehicles.

Quality and a high reliability play an important role in child car seats or glove compartments.

Hardly anyone knows the products, or the manufacturers, of the compression, extension, leg spring, wire bending and wire form parts.

"Intelligent cooperation, strong together" is the motto of the Schrimpf and Schoneberg, the Friedhelm Nusken, and the CW Hanebeck Sohne .

Quality and reliability pay off and thus, the group of companies has been expanding for years.

To support the growth and the continuing improvement process in the companies, they did not only invest in state-of-the-art machines, but will also opt for the automotive component of the abas Business Software, a flexible, modern and future-proof ERP software, in the future.

The implementation will follow the "7-steps" implementation methodology of the ABAS Automotive which guarantees a secure and particularly economic implementation.

Group of companies Schrimpf and Schoneberg, Friedhelm Nusken and C.W.

Hanebeck Sohne : "Centuries characterized by springs" Already in 1921, the year Schrimpf and Schoneberg was founded, it was possible to obtain a comprehensive production program of springs and wire bending parts.

Since then, the solidly growing company has been expanding its operation and market shares considerably, through competence and inventiveness, entrepreneurial ability and social partnerships with its employees.

The use of state-of-the-art machines, innovative technologies, as well as the comprehensive training of all employees, also in quality management methods, have contributed considerably to fulfilling the market requirements perfectly and flexibly.

Due to its high technical know-how, Schrimpf and Schoneberg is a competent and future-oriented development partner of automotive component suppliers and other industries.

The service sector is seen as one of the supporting pillars in terms of "Customer satisfaction" and has top priority.

60 employees and as many temporary staff are producing compression, extension, leg and double leg springs.

The spring specialist from Hagen has, for example, outsourced the polishing of springs to the workshop for the handicapped in Iserloh.

65% of the company's products are used in vehicle construction.

Schrimpf und Schoneberg was one of the first companies certified according to ISO TS 16449.

The VDA 6.1 certification was awarded in 1996.

The C.W.

Hanebeck Sohne , another partner in this group of companies, can also look back on a long tradition.

Since the establishment in 1847 and until 1985 the family business from Iserlohn was producing wire bulk goods.

Within only a few years, after the company was taken over by today's management, C.W.

Hanebeck Sohne became an important and efficient vendor of wire and wire form parts, as well as stampings for all groups of buyers, especially for the automotive component supplier, electronics and sanitary industries.

The Friedhelm Nusken from Halver is the third party in this group of companies and has been producing customised wire springs and bent parts for buyers from the automotive industry, for electrotechnology, as well as numerous other sectors of industry since 1966.

A diploma thesis introduced a new era in terms of IT in the group of companies.

Stefan Berger, who completed an internship at Schrimpf and Schoneberg in 2006, wrote his thesis on the topic: "Selection and implementation of an ERP system".

Knut Schuster who, together with Jurgen Hammermeister, manages Schrimpf and Schoneberg, immediately recognised the potential of this thesis: "For approximately 5 years we had already been looking for a new, future-proof ERP software." He continues: "We are using a DOS-based individual solution.

Here, we can intervene ourselves and have always carried out adjustments over the years.

Thus, we created a complex, isolated solution, which on the one hand exactly adjusted to our requirements, but was on the other hand more difficult to handle.

Pricing pressure prevails in the automotive sector.

OEM's and the large automotive component suppliers have growing requirements regarding transparency, ability to provide information, reaction times or cross-company data exchange.

Our individual software here reaches its limits.

We will also use the introduction of a standard solution to "smooth out" processes in the group of companies.

In the future, we want to use synergies in purchasing, for example, or to "include" automotive specific delivery schedules via EDI in production.

We would not be able to depict all of this with our current solution.

By means of the newly structured internal and external processes we also want to relieve our employees and thus support our ongoing expansion effectively.

With the new organisation, we will maximise cost-effectiveness and increase liquidity." The selection team, comprised of the managers of the three companies, the persons responsible for IT and students of the University of Applied Sciences Hagen, rented a room at the University Hagen and started their work.

"We defined dozens of ERP systems.

The Internet, professional journals and visits to trade fairs provided us with information," remembers Knut Schuster and "many providers already failed the previously defined criterion catalog.

In addition to functional aspects of the software - the container management should be contained in the standard - so-called soft factors were also important.

Due to the experiences with our current system, we placed great emphasis on the security of investment.

We had to find a competent partner with which we could cooperate in the long run." Three providers remained after the presentations.

These were invited to do a second round of presentation for further appraisal.

Knut Schuster: "The remaining software providers' references were extremely important for us.

It was checked in detail if the systems remaining in the selection would fulfill the promises made in the presentations when they are used in practice.

In this case the abas Business Software convinced us the most.

At a forum for prospective customers of the ABAS Automotive , for example, two users of the software gave a lecture about their experiences during the software selection, the implementation and the use in practice of abas ERP.

Here we were already provided with a lot of useful information.

Another possibility to exchange information was the abas Customer Forum in September 2006, where we were also able to talk to many users." In the end there was an obvious winner: 100% agreement on the abas Business Software.

Knut Schuster summarizes the selection process: "The abas Business Software tipped the scales with other, not so technical factors.

The perfect software presentations carried out by ABAS Automotive and the abas partner ABAS Projektierung from Cologne gained the highest level of approval in our selection team.

The direct contact to the future project management of the abas partner during the selection phase, the orientation to the future which the software provider offers, the flexibility and continuous further development of the solution ensuring release compatibility, the multilingualism of the software and the methodical implementation concept of the ABAS Projektierung all best suited our strategy, our company processes and the objectives of our ERP migration.

We are a medium-sized company and were looking for a competent, medium-sized partner company.

Corporate groups are normally not interested in our requirements.

With ABAS however, we had a good feeling right from the start." "The flexibility of the system and the easy operability of the software support our continuing improvement process and the higher added value in production and business processes in our company," remarks Knut Schuster about the objectives of the migration.

He continues: "We expect an increased transparency and ability to provide information in the company due to the integrity of the data.

No more duplicate entries, production works more effective and our employees will be relieved in our growth process, this will then have positive effects on our cost structure and liquidity.

The automotive components which are integrated in the software will also show their effects and smooth out processes." The software implementation at Schrimpf and Schoneberg KG, Friedhelm Nusken and C.W.

Hanebeck Sohne will comply with the abas project management, a methodical implementation concept which is carried out close to the standard and as efficiently as possible.

A project agreement ensures security for all parties involved.

The implementation of an ERP system has top priority.

The management is the topmost instance in the implementation of a project.

But also the project manager, as well as the key and end users play an important role in the successful implementation.

One the one side, the project has to be combined with the company environment and, on the other hand, the project must be organized internally and carried out successfully.

All tasks of the individual team members are described in the project agreement.

Knut Schuster: "During the software implementation the employees have to deal with additional burdens, however, with the special abas implementation methodology, this effort can be reduced.

The motivation of all project participants is high, the interest is huge.

This can be documented by the kick-off meeting which was carried out on a Saturday.

The meeting was optional, but almost the entire staff participated in the kick-off." Thus, nothing is in the way of a further expansion of the group of companies.

In terms of IT the future has already started.

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