First Class Supply Base Management in Mechanical Engineering

Vienna | Lengerich, 13. March 2014 –The international technology partner for the manufacturing of flexible packing machines, Windmöller & Hölscher, has been working with the solution providers at POOL4TOOL for years to increase efficiency in their purchasing department. The project has been focused on tackling strategic supply base management, eSourcing, and improving supplier performance.

Windmöller & Hölscher KG is a leading specialist for high-tech machines used to create packaging material, and they have a good handle on their suppliers. The company’s cumulative innovative skills are reflected in the impressive purchasing volume of the Purchasing Department’s 35 employees, which can reach more than 200 million Euros per year. To achieve this, more than 16,000 offers need to be collected and processed, for both design parts and catalog items. This high figure is due in part to the dynamic company’s commitment to further developing their products, and the company’s modular design system, which seeks to create customized products that will meet each client’s specific needs. Furthermore, the company mainly produces smaller series that consist of up to 60 units, because their focus is on creating high quality, specialized machines. This requires 1,000 new parts to be purchased each moth, such as electronic components, rollers, levers, protective plats, etc. “We process an astounding 16,000 RFQ’s a year, most of which contain more than one item,” explains Herbert Fischer, the Procurement Manager at Windmöller & Hölscher. “Without automating this process, it would be too much work to handle,” emphasizes Fischer, remembering how things used to be.

Portal Simplifies Communication with Suppliers

Windmöller & Hölscher began working the application providers at POOL4TOOL in 2007 and have been making steady progress since then. Even at the beginning, processes like supplier registration were transferred to POOL4TOOL, creating a foundation for improvement in eSourcing and quality management. The next step was to automate the RFQ process by implementing POOL4TOOL’s RFQ tool, which helps the company implement new procurement strategies more quickly, especially if they goal is to increase the number of suppliers in specific regions, or to efficiently add on small quantities to large orders. After the switch to the automated system, manual processing via email and fax, and manual data entry into the SAP system became unnecessary, leading to an increase in quotes for each buyer. The Purchasing Department at Windmöller & Hölscher benefits from the seamless SAP connection to the supply base portal in particular. SAP is still the primary system in use.

First Class Supplier Performance

To measure supplier performance and to manage complaints, Windmöller & Hölscher use POOL4TOOL’s QDX module. Out of the 3,000 defects that occur per year that range from a broken part to defective electronic components, more than 2,000 of them are processed via the portal. During this process, complaints are, as before, entered first into SAP and are then completed with pictures and reports if there are any available. After they are released, the complete documents, including the defect notices, are transferred to POOL4TOOL. The supplier is informed of this automatically and is then asked to fill out the available 8D defect notice report in QDX. All of the entries are then documented and then sent back to the SAP system. This automation step has given Windmöller & Hölscher a financial advantage. In the past, only 80% of the complaints were resolved, whereas today that number is more than 95%, This is because integrated workflows with a multi-level reminder system have led to fewer instances of missed deadlines.

In addition, this tool offers a database for a thorough analysis of supplier performance and eventually a supplier rating. New graph features have been added to the POOL4TOOL QDX module as well. In the portal, each supplier can see their performance report at any time and can then react accordingly. “The sooner suppliers are made aware of complaints, the sooner they can fix them. Our supplier’s reaction time has improved considerably thanks to POOL4TOOL. Defective parts are often replaced within 24 hours, which helps us stick to our own deadlines,” explains the very pleased Procurement Manager at Windmöller & Hölscher, Herbert Fischer. Every two years an internal supplier rating is generated in the POOL4TOOL QDX module, where the available key figures are expanded with soft facts added by the buyers. An evaluation that extends beyond the key figures contributes to long-term and successful cooperation with that supplier.

About Windmöller & Hölscher: Lengerich/Germany based Windmöller & Hölscher is an internationally leading manufacturer of flexible packaging machinery and equipment. The product line encompasses blown and cast film equipment, flexographic and gravure printing presses, machines for surface finishing and processing of paper, films, and woven plastic fabrics, as well as FFS (Form-Fill-Seal) packaging systems. Windmöller & Hölscher equipment and systems are currently in operation in more than 130 countries and at more than 5,000 customer plants, which impressively proves that the manufacturer lives up to its company maxim „Passion for Innovation“. www.wuh-group.com

About POOL4TOOL: POOL4TOOL is a cloud-based supply chain and procurement solution suite for connecting business partners across the value chain. With POOL4TOOL, companies can implement a single, natively integrated suite to support multiple internal processes and communicate with suppliers. The portfolio includes software solutions for over 40 processes, including supplier relationship management, sourcing, supply base management, supply chain management, eCollaboration, quality control, and product costing (PLC). With more than 10 years of experience in the manufacturing industry, POOL4TOOL’s solutions are tailored to support manufacturing procurement processes and requirements, e.g. sourcing of direct material, BOM, drawings, should cost model, and VMI functionality. Beside the headquarters in Vienna (Austria), the POOL4TOOL incorporation runs subsidiaries in Munich and Stuttgart (Germany), Paris (France), Detroit (USA), and Singapore. The company serves more than 200 international clients, i.e. Alcan, Behr, Carl Zeiss, Dürr, Kärcher, Miele, Modine, ThyssenKrupp, and Trumpf. www.pool4tool.com

POOL4TOOL AG
Altmannsdorfer Straße 91/19
1120 Wien

This release was published on openPR.