{"id":34743,"date":"2009-09-04T14:00:40","date_gmt":"2009-09-04T12:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ak-online.de\/2009\/09\/diskover-gives-erp-system-a-helping-hand\/"},"modified":"2025-02-10T13:55:57","modified_gmt":"2025-02-10T12:55:57","slug":"diskover-gives-erp-system-a-helping-hand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ak-online.de\/en\/diskover-gives-erp-system-a-helping-hand\/","title":{"rendered":"DISKOVER gives ERP system a helping hand"},"content":{"rendered":"

Achieving sustainable optimization with rules and controlling<\/strong><\/p>\n

By Steffen Schwippl (Serag-Wiessner) and Dr. Bernd Reineke<\/p>\n

It is certainly nothing new that industrial planning and procurement processes are a highly complex, interlinked set of different processes. But ever more intelligent and sophisticated solutions are making it increasingly possible to master the balancing act between conflicting objectives such as delivery readiness, inventories and costs. At Serag-Wiessner, the medium-sized manufacturer of medical and pharmaceutical products, it is also important to set the many parameters in such a way that the balancing act succeeds.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Product example Serag-Wiessner produces and supplies surgical suture material, textile implants for the pelvic floor and infusion solutions from its Naila site with around 200 employees. Of the approx. 3,000 items in the surgical sutures and textile implants division, which differ in terms of thread types, thread thicknesses, lengths and needle-thread combinations, approx. 1,500 items must be kept in stock from the dispatch warehouse. The approximately 25,000 customers, which include hospitals, doctors in private practice and wholesalers in Germany and abroad, expect a delivery time of 24 to 48 hours. To meet these requirements, stocks are held in the finished goods warehouse, which were previously dimensioned by planners and dispatchers on the basis of ERP order proposals. In the past, attempts to significantly reduce stocks by our own efforts did not lead to the desired success. The management therefore decided to entrust the supply chain specialists at Abels & Kemmner with this task. The most important requirement was to develop and implement a sustainable solution. In addition to a 100% suitable concept, the focus was therefore also on the implementation of the solution. The requirement to generate a consistent solution raised the question from the outset of how or whether the existing ERP system could support this solution. The restrictions in production and logistics had to be taken into account and included in the determination of the scheduling and planning parameters. In addition to the sales-oriented target figures – delivery times of 24 to 48 hours and an average target delivery readiness of 96% – the planning parameters therefore also had to ensure that the production orders and the associated set-up processes were limited to 1,200 per month.<\/p>\n

\"Stock<\/a>
Stock turnover<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The project objectives were determined in advance with the help of simulations. During implementation, it became apparent that success was only achieved after a tailored inventory controlling system with a few but meaningful key figures was introduced.<\/em><\/p>\n

The project began with an inventory of the current processes and logistics parameters such as range, delivery readiness and stock turnover. An important aspect in this phase was also the analysis of the ERP system used at Serag-Wiessner. Although the SoftM system, which is based on an AS400 platform, has basic scheduling and forecasting functions, it became clear right at the start of the project that the project objectives could hardly be achieved without extending this system. The management therefore decided to purchase the missing functionality via the DISKOVER SCO optimization tool. This software from SCT GmbH is characterized in particular by strong functionalities in the following areas:<\/p>\n