Perfect interaction

Rand 45000 production orders have been processed via the ABACUS ERP for one year. The system provides daily updates on the status of the production orders, offers a permanent overview of the dates and costs of the manufactured parts as well as current stock levels. When deciding on the new ERP solution, the focus was on the desire to monitor orders directly in the system so that errors can already be eliminated in the work preparation phase. In addition, the ABACUS software is programmed in Eastern Switzerland, which was another positive factor in favor of this software for the management of Walser, because "in the event of any problems, the developers can be contacted directly," explains Christin Walser. After consulting with a reference customer, the choice of integrator fell on the ABACUS partner bsb.info.partner AG.

From zero to hundred in two months
The decision to implement the software was made in autumn 2014, and sales figures and turnover were to be available as early as 2015. Already at the beginning of the new year, the agriculture and finance departments started using the new software. Since May 2015, all ERP processes have also been running via ABACUS, so that every employee can view the status of every PPS order. Since all salespeople at Walser also function as product managers and support at least one key customer, the process flows in ABACUS ERP were adapted to Walser's process organization. This starts with the customer meeting, continues with the

The system works flawlessly despite the extremely high implementation speed

Collection of the requirements, calculation and quotation, production-technical conversion of the customer requirements to the machine park including the production competences, up to the AVOR, the production supervision and the final costing.

The biggest challenge
For bsb.info.partner, the task was to integrate production data acquisition into the system for feedback on the manufacturing steps in production. Through the integration of the PDA software from ADMIA, a more accurate recording of the manufacturing costs and clarity about the production status of each individual production order is given at any time. "The transparency of the production process is much better today," Christin Walser states with satisfaction.

A major challenge in this ERP project was to calculate the properties of heating rods and the design of filaments using various parameters based on customer requirements directly in the ABACUS product master. For this purpose, a parameterization tool was implemented in the form of an Excel spreadsheet in which Walser's design engineers can optimize the parameters themselves on the basis of empirical values. By means of Scrip

ting, the parameters from the product master are automatically transferred to this Excel table, calculated there accordingly and written back online to the product master.

All order-relevant documents, such as welding reports requiring inspection, can be stored in the ABACUS dossiers so that they are available for each order as well as evaluations produced with the help of AbaReport for monthly reporting.

Conclusion
"The IT project has paid off," says Christin Walser. The system works perfectly despite the extremely high implementation speed. The transparency achieved helps to better identify deviations caused by errors and to correct them more quickly. This leads to shorter delivery and throughput times, an increased willingness to provide information to customers and lower costs. Christin Walser continues: "Thanks to the ABACUS ERP software, we now know at all times where a production order stands in the manufacturing process. With the introduction of a new, completely integrated Swiss ERP solution from ABACUS, the processes are even more efficient and transparent. In addition, bsb.info.partner speaks the same language as we do and was able to convince us with their professional competence and experience. The project has been implemented to our complete satisfaction within the specified budget."