Intelligent process management as the key

With over 660 leading brands in more than 70 countries, Assa Abloy develops, produces and distributes products and services for the construction sector and OEM customers. In Switzerland, Assa Abloy (Schweiz) AG represents and distributes the traditional brands KESO, MSL, Planet, Yale and effeff. Assa Abloy, which has been listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange since 1994, has many recipes for success - a key aspect of which is to always deliver the best quality. In order to live up to this claim in the long term, it is necessary to have coherent work processes. Assa Abloy (Schweiz) AG has set the course for the future in good time: It relies on an integrated management system that makes smooth processes possible.

A look into the past

Before Assa Abloy (Switzerland) AG took the step towards automated and digitalized process management, employees saved documents and processes as Word or PDF files in a defined network folder. Changes were made directly in the file, and the old was usually overwritten. "In this way, versioning was naturally not possible and the changes could not be traced," recalls Patrik Börlin, Head of Quality Assurance at the Kleinlützel site and Head of Quality Management and Environmental Management at Assa Abloy (Switzerland) AG. As a result, the individual work instructions, process flows and forms could not be clearly identified as the latest version. "An attempt was made to manually record the change history in the footer," says Patrik Börlin. "But the document search remained very difficult. Basically, you had to know exactly where which file was stored so that you could find it again. "In addition, the company maintained different filing systems at its two locations in Richterswil and Kleinlützel. In addition, there were two heterogeneous process structures and process maps. This made it very difficult for employees working at both locations to find their way around. In addition, the integrity of the documents had to be questioned: Had the adjustments even been made by the authorized person? "Often, the process owners were not even informed about the changes," says Patrik Börlin. "Sometimes they saw the updates to their documents for the first time in an audit." In addition, there were high coordination efforts within the organization - whether in the course of the update research or generally in the search for the right form.

Minimize workload, ensure document integrity

In view of the initial situation, those responsible at Assa Abloy (Schweiz) AG decided to introduce an integrated management system, which could solve the existing problems in one fell swoop. The motivation for this was also high at the group level in the German-speaking region - especially with regard to compliance management. "We needed a system that would ensure that the work instructions and process flow descriptions, as well as all the other documents, were up to date, quickly retrievable and had integrity," summarizes Patrik Börlin. "It was important to us to harmonise document control across the two sites in Kleinlützel and Richterswil and to significantly reduce the overall workload for constantly updating the documents. We wanted to gain the certainty that the documents could not be changed without the knowledge of the respective process owner," states Patrik Börlin. "And: all information should be in one central location in the future."

In the course of the system selection, three solutions remained in the end, which were analysed in detail. The integrated management system orgavision finally convinced, among other things, due to its ease of use and pleasant user interface. "We needed a web-based application so that everyone could log in from anywhere. The system had to be able to take all employees with it straight away," says Patrik Börlin. "With orgavision, we made the right decision here." The orgavision system has been implemented at Assa Abloy at several locations in Germany and Switzerland.

Integrated management system offers advantages

Since the Swiss branch of Assa Abloy has been working with the new integrated management system, the company and the now over 300 users have benefited on many levels. All documents and process descriptions are now stored in a central location and can be easily found thanks to full text search. In this way, both a constant overview and consistent control are possible. "We notice a significant increase in quality and also save a massive amount of time," says Patrik Börlin happily. "The employees have accepted the system surprisingly well and use it intensively." As usual, the training effort was divergent: Some learn faster than others. However, should someone have a user question - which happens rarely enough - they will find a competent contact person in Mr. Börlin. In the course of introducing the new system, the process owners quickly took over responsibility for their documents and workflows. "Now the quality manager is no longer required here, which simplifies the workflow considerably," says Patrik Börlin. "It is also helpful that the structure and operation in the system are the same for everyone. This enables us to achieve synergy effects. "In addition, the system's predefined approval process has proven its worth: all department heads can change the document, but it can only be viewed by everyone after it has been approved by the respective process manager. This also ensures that no one accidentally accesses outdated versions. The system also has an acknowledgement function. In the event of a change, all those involved receive an e-mail and confirm their acknowledgement in the system. "In this way, a constant electronic record is possible of who received what information and when," summarizes Patrik Börlin. "This means that no additional paper records are required in the personnel area. Again, we save paper and working time." The incident management module is also beneficial for Assa Abloy (Schweiz) AG: for example, suppliers also have access to the module and the error messages that affect them. Each supplier can only see their own error messages and documents their investigation and the resulting measures directly in the system.

Conclusion: Success through quality of work and process acceleration

Assa Abloy (Schweiz) AG has set digital standards and introduced an integrated management system. In this way, process management now succeeds at a high level. Since the integration of the new solution, the company has saved both working time and paper. And the positive development continues, as Patrik Börlin knows: "We are aiming to equip our assembly stations with terminals. Production orders will then be recorded directly at these terminals. In the future, test instructions or error messages can also be opened from the application directly at the workstation." Once again, it is clear that at Assa Abloy (Schweiz) AG, quality of work and process acceleration are key success factors from which customers worldwide benefit. The company is currently working on integrating the Swiss site in Tagelswangen into the existing system.