Baumit
The building materials company Baumit uses the industry solution on the basis of Oracle E-Business Suite. This creates a transparent order situation and is a project control tool and management information system all in one.
The user
At the latest following the redevelopment of the Berlin Reichstag, Baumit, from Hindelang im Allgäu, has been regarded as Germany’s top address in this area. Baumit used 2,095 tonnes of plaster material over an area of 40,000 m² for this prestige object in the new Government quarter. 1,700 tonnes were moved to the 24 silos via silo train or using special vehicles, 400 tonnes were transported to the construction site in sacks. www.baumit.de
Insiders from the building materials industry know just what a logistical and commercial tightrope act lies behind such a supposedly banal delivery and transport order. Whilst the roughly 100 field sales force employees of the building materials company BaumitBayosan negotiate with the customers – as a rule processors and craftsman’s companies – the normal practice in the industry is for the invoice to be sent to the responsible wholesaler. The goods, on the other hand, are usually delivered direct to the construction site. As a result, the commercial system must be capable not only of assigning different prices and addresses to an order, but must also be familiar with quantity details: It may be that 2 pallets of goods packed in sacks are ordered, whilst the delivery note then indicates 70 sacks of redevelopment plaster and the invoice 2.4 tonnes of plaster – also an absolutely typical situation in the building materials trade.
In order to get these procedures and particular aspects under control from a software point of view, BaumitBayosan began the search for a suitable ERP solution in 1998. “We wanted the best available on the market for our industry” explains Ingo Bachmann, at the time Head of EDP and Organisation at BaumitBayosan.
Primus Solutions www.primus-solutions.com) emerged as the winner from the two solutions in the final decision phase with Oracle applications, as the adaptability of the individual masks and surfaces was a convincing factor. Primus is an Oracle partner with industry solutions for building materials, freight forwarders and series production. Primus realised the solution on the basis of Oracle
applications integrated for the areas warehousing, order processing, finance and purchasing, and adapted to the requirements of the building materials industry. The specifics of the building industry include such matters as calculating the mileage in order processing. Amongst other things, the final price of goods is based on the distance which they have to be transported to the construction site. Whilst many companies have to leaf through lists of paper for this, calculation of the mileage is deposited in the Primus solution. If the customer collects the goods himself, he may receive remuneration under certain circumstances. Consequently, it must be possible to determine fields in the invoice for discountable amounts from which a variable share can be deducted. Thanks to this solution, BaumitBayosan was able to shorten the process from receipt of order through to invoicing by up to one week. Ingo Bachmann regards the fact that the solution was realised as Oracle Network Client Architecture NCA as a major plus point.
Staff can access the database from any location via an Internet portal. Field sales force employees use this system to prepare for their visits and look up outstanding items, payments, quotations, rebate conditions and the most recent contacts with their customers. Simplicity of the architecture and Internet technology also enable the connection of remote locations within hours on the basis of favourably-priced 128Kbit/s leads. BaumitBayosan receives hundreds of orders each day. Thanks to the integration of the four modules for warehouse, order processing and finance and purchasing, up-to-date information can be called up easily. Each field sales force employee receives a daily e-mail automatically following printing of the invoices and with the items of relevance for him. In this way, he is always in a position to provide the customer with information.
As a result of the coupling of the solution with an EDI system, the invoices can be forwarded electronically to the customer’s accounts department – automatically and immediately. The system also covers the transport aspect: as soon as an order is received, the responsible freight forwarding company receives notification for the pending freight, so as to be able to plan in time. The silo management has also contributed towards the increase in efficiency. On the basis of the silo number, it is possible to determine at any time which silo is currently at which construction site. Silo position, prices and conditions can easily be found for repeat orders of the goods, because all deliveries concerning an unloading point are summarised into one order. With repeat order requests, only the delivery item is sought for and the quantity entered. “Since the introduction of the system our work has become much more transparent” explains Stephan Kiewald, Head of Electronic Marketing, Services and CRM at BaumitBayosan.
[Source: Computer @ Produktion 6-7/2002]