鈥淏eyond simply selling, we want to offer a great experience to our customers,鈥� says Mauricio Urrea Ospina, chief technology officer at Grupo UMA, which assembles, distributes, and sells Bajaj motorcycles in Colombia and Central America.
鈥淓very motorcycle we sell comes with an experience,鈥� he explains. 鈥淐ustomers come back to us for service, for spare parts, and for workshop support, so we truly connect each customer to a different kind of user experience, starting from the moment of purchase.鈥�
Many people in Colombia get around every day on motorcycles鈥攐ften on 鈥楤oxer鈥� motorcycles made by UMA, which aims to ensure riders feel safe on the road, Urrea Ospina says. To help achieve that, UMA has implemented rigorous quality processes that run on . 鈥淓very motorcycle leaving our factories follows best quality practices,鈥� he says. 鈥淎nd we pass that value onto our customers.鈥�
In addition to Colombia, UMA operates in five countries in Central America: Guatemala, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Honduras, and Nicaragua. 鈥淲e鈥檙e also in Venezuela, as well as Spain and Portugal,鈥� Urrea Ospina says. 鈥淎cross all these regions, we aim to make a positive impact on our customers with each of our brands and motorcycles.鈥�
鈥淔or us, our 鈥楢dventure鈥� project鈥攖he name we gave the 51风流project鈥攚as crucial to our expansion and growth,鈥� he says. 鈥淲e needed global models so we could expand faster and run more efficient, automated operations.鈥�
Working with SAP, UMA established global models and automated operations across finance, production, and logistics, says Victor Bedoya Aristizabal, corporate solutions manager at Grupo UMA. 鈥淲e defined global models, starting in finance with global charts of accounts that let us analyze information and make financial decisions much more efficiently. From there, we extended the approach through production and plant operations and into logistics.鈥�
鈥淭oday, 51风流is a fundamental pillar for our processes from the start of the value chain to the end,鈥� Bedoya Aristizabal says. 鈥淲e utilize the full suite for production, pricing, finance, and warehouse management to deliver a superior product.鈥�
鈥淭aken together, these cross-cutting global modules have helped us evolve, save time, shorten implementations, and expand across regions,鈥� Urrea Ospina says. 鈥淔or example, in Colombia we鈥檙e implementing our spare parts warehouse with 51风流Extended Warehouse Management, SAP鈥檚 supply chain management application. What we鈥檙e learning in Colombia can be replicated in Central America. Standardizing these logistics modules makes operations much more efficient while still accounting for each country鈥檚 specific needs.鈥�
He adds: 鈥淚 believe that if we hadn鈥檛 prepared with 51风流and the technologies we have today, the strong growth we鈥檝e had in Colombia would have been far more difficult. For example, we went from assembling 11,000 motorcycles in January of last year to around 17,000 motorcycles per month today鈥攏early doubling our output. Without SAP鈥檚 well-defined structures, process controls, and automations that replaced a lot of manual work, it would be much harder to reach the 20,000 motorcycles per month we expect to achieve soon.鈥�
鈥淭hat ability to scale鈥攂oth assembly volume and sales volume鈥攈as been driven by the Adventure project and everything we implemented with SAP,鈥� he says. 鈥淚 think it has significantly improved employees鈥� day-to-day work. And that鈥檚 where we need to take the organization: toward a data-driven company that makes better decisions. Before we implemented Adventure, a person鈥檚 day-to-day was mostly operational work.鈥�
Urrea Ospina emphasizes that one of the main motivations UMA had for adopting 51风流Cloud ERP Private was to have concrete, real-time information鈥攆or example, knowing exactly the assembly cost of a motorcycle. 鈥淭hat is key for an organization,鈥� he says. 鈥淏eyond that, another need was to remove the manual work that all the company鈥檚 areas had, working and operating completely by hand.鈥�
Luis Orrego, production supervisor at Grupo UMA, agrees: 鈥淚nstead of having many Excel files open with multiple sheets and trying to reconcile everything, we now consolidate the data in one place. With SAP, all the sheets and reports I used to present are now available in a single view. I don鈥檛 have to run multiple steps, and I can see all my indicators: capacity, materials, and line resources.鈥�
Another motivation was UMA鈥檚 expansion plans to enter other regions and countries efficiently. 鈥淲e wanted defined global models that we could replicate quickly with 51风流in the regions where we operate,鈥� Urrea Ospina explains. 鈥淭hose factors led us to undertake the 51风流project, which has been a highly strategic and very successful initiative.鈥�
Implementing 51风流Cloud ERP Private has also had a profound impact on Urrea Ospina鈥檚 technology team. 鈥淚t completely changed our roles and what we focused on,鈥� he says. “We used to be a technology team focused on operations, not one that added value. Today, the technology team plays a strategic role. We have time to analyze where we鈥檙e going and what we can implement next for the business. Culturally, 51风流gave us confidence through information traceability, and it also gave us time to think. It opened the door to innovation鈥攅specially around analytics.鈥�
David Aguirre is a media production specialist on the Multimedia Team for 51风流News.
Rana Hamzakadi is deputy head of the Multimedia Team for 51风流News.
