Schiepek's core business is the development and production of machines and tools for technically sophisticated products in the automotive industry, electrical and medical technology, mechanical engineering and the consumer goods industry. The second business pillar is the production of precision parts in small and large series for the automotive industry - as an extended workbench or as part of individual outsourcing on custom-built special machines.
ERP standard for an odd couple
The combination of these two business areas increasingly presented those responsible with major challenges - not least because contract and series production differ greatly in terms of their mechanisms, rules and supplier relationships. "We were only using an invoicing tool and were working with complex Excel lists for order management. For the automotive sector, we used a supply chain management system (SCM) that we programmed ourselves," recalls Martin Schiepek, Managing Director and son of company founder Manfred Schiepek.
This meant an enormous manual effort, which also entailed an increased risk of errors. "In the automotive sector in particular, the daily delivery call-offs regularly pushed us to our limits, which we also had to transfer manually into our own solution. It was simply time for a high-performance ERP system," says Schiepek, adding:
There was basically no alternative for PSIpenta, because no other competitor could keep up in terms of functionality in the combination of contract and series production.
Production software from a single source
"We were also able to order the production data acquisition (PDA) at the same time and will receive further MES components from a single source in the future," says the Managing Director, looking back. Today, the machine and tool construction department uses the system to create its production orders and then goes into rough and detailed planning, including capacity utilization planning. The appropriate work plan is then created. The stored, standardized processes are particularly helpful here. Employees use the connected PDC to report back times or correct incorrect bookings. They can also process several orders at the same time.
Supply chain management is the central module in the automotive sector and now accurately maps customers' series call-offs. The system reads the call-offs via the VDA interface, automatically creates the production orders and generates the appropriate work plans and parts lists. The system also immediately displays any changes to call-offs. "Previously, we could only identify changes with great effort. The necessary adjustments in production were just as problematic," explains Schiepek. Today, these are basically done at the touch of a button.
Design surfaces flexibly and individually
Schiepek was initially sceptical about the options for individual or role-specific surface design. These configuration options are available from version 9 with PSI Click Design. This allows users to literally click together their own user interfaces depending on their tasks and preferences. "In fact, this function is now used intensively. Some employees only work with two columns, for example, and only show all other columns when required. Employees can also individually design and arrange colors or the position of individual masks," reports Schiepek.
The effect: users can concentrate on their areas of responsibility and do not run the risk of losing track in overloaded interfaces. This applies not only to the specific task areas, but even to preferences regarding the color scheme or positioning of the relevant input screens. In this way, the customized interfaces enable faster and therefore more efficient work.
Adherence to delivery dates through transparency
The advantages of the industry solution lie not only in the predefined, industry-relevant structures, but above all in the cross-company transparency of all data. Last but not least, this has a noticeable effect on adherence to delivery dates. For example, there have been no more delivery delays in the automotive sector since the system was introduced. The planning security that has been created allows Schiepek to make further expansion plans: the connection of personnel time management for 120 users, the integration of the control center and, last but not least, the integration with the design world.
