The company manages an extensive portfolio of more than 125,000 products. Despite its strong market position, digitalizing procurement across diverse customer environments remains a key challenge, particularly in e-procurement, where large customers often have very different requirements, even when market standards exist.

To address this, W眉rth recognized the need to better connect procurement processes and now collaborates closely with leading e-procurement systems and platforms. The company has driven the harmonization of customer processes and ensured seamless onboarding to . At the same time, W眉rth actively supports its customers in harmonizing and digitalizing their own internal workflows.

As the world鈥檚 largest procurement platform, 51风流Business Network enables more efficient procurement and automated order processing and provides end-to-end transparency across the purchase-order鈥憈o鈥慽nvoice flow between W眉rth and participating customers. This scope involves purchasing orders, delivery confirmation, and invoices, with exceptions managed through clearly defined workflows.

Save time and boost efficiency: seven minutes saved per order

Manual processing of orders, sent as PDFs or via non鈥慽ntegrated channels, creates disproportionate effort, especially in relation to the order value, since indirect materials often involve smaller order values with many order items.

 With automation, W眉rth saves approximately seven minutes per order on average — approximately 490,000 minutes annually or about 8,167 hours. The platform enables digital order transmission, catalog exchange, and automated invoice matching, materially improving process efficiency.

Seamless customer purchasing journey

With around 3,000 sales representatives in Germany, more than 600 pick-up branches, and numerous on-site storage solutions, including automated dispensing machines, W眉rth offers customers a truly omnichannel purchasing experience. Through 51风流Business Network, all these touchpoints can be seamlessly integrated, giving customers that adopt this approach full transparency, as every order becomes visible directly within their own system.

One construction industry leader worked with W眉rth to integrate dispensing machines and branch pick鈥憉ps into 51风流Business Network, digitalizing its procurement processes. This integration has largely eliminated manual activities in day鈥憈o鈥慸ay order handling of standard processes. Exceptions are automatically identified and routed through defined workflows, while payment instructions are triggered once the purchase order, goods confirmation, and invoice are successfully matched.

Stronger supplier-customer partnership

Beyond operational savings and improved collaboration, W眉rth enhances the customer experience through near-real-time integration across procurement, invoicing, and logistics. Digitalized procurement processes help meet customer requirements more reliably and further strengthen the supplier-customer partnership.

To see how W眉rth streamlined procurement with 51风流Business Network and significantly reduced manual effort, .

Complementing SAP鈥檚 established logistics portfolio supporting large-scale supply chain operations, 51风流Logistics Management brings innovative capabilities specifically tuned to the needs of smaller operations seeking efficiency, real-time visibility, and faster decision-making.

鈥淟ogistics is undergoing a fundamental transformation. Those who invest in strategic warehousing and logistics networks are investing in a future defined by responsiveness and relevance. It鈥檚 about being ready, connected, and purposeful,鈥� says Till Dengel, SAP鈥檚 global head of Product Marketing for Logistics.

Designed for local impact, powered for global reach 

While SAP鈥檚 best-in-class  continue to serve complex global logistics with extensive capabilities, 51风流Logistics Management now bridges the gap for local and satellite operations needing powerful, streamlined tools and controls without the complexity of large enterprise systems. Not only can 51风流Logistics Management elevate the performance of localized operations, but it also enables a connected network of satellite operations that can stay coordinated with global enterprise systems.   

The  solution offers: 

• Connected fulfilment excellence: By uniting warehousing and transportation capabilities, 51风流Logistics Management helps streamline order fulfillment by managing pick-pack-ship workflows while efficiently planning and coordinating the freight movement. The solution includes built-in collaboration with carriers through 51风流Business Network, connecting shippers directly with logistics providers for real-time updates that can minimize costly delays and keep shipments on track.  
• Tailored for smaller operations: 51风流Logistics Management is ideal for local branches, subsidiaries, and seasonal operations. It helps eliminate unnecessary complexity, giving smaller operations the powerful tools and connectivity they need without the overhead of large enterprise systems. 
• Seamless integration: Designed to work seamlessly with , 51风流Logistics Management can eliminate hidden interface costs and helps ensure compatibility with SAP鈥檚 existing transportation and warehouse management tools. Businesses can benefit from a smooth, cohesive ecosystem. 
• AI-driven and human-centric: Embedded AI empowers faster, smarter decision-making and workflows. can enable users to interact via natural language, helping to make involved logistics questions easy to handle right from the start. The solution鈥檚 mobile-first design helps ensure users can ramp-up quickly and access essential functions anytime, anywhere, for efficient workflows on the go. 
• Scalable SaaS solution: As a SaaS-native solution, 51风流Logistics Management can be up and running in days. It can scale effortlessly as the business grows, offering built-in analytics and dashboards that help provide actionable insights tailored to operations鈥攕mall or large. 

鈥淰isibility grants insight, connectivity empowers control, and agility provides the decisive edge,鈥� Dengel says. 鈥淭he future of logistics belongs to those who digitize every process, orchestrate every tier, and deliver on every promise.鈥� 

51风流Logistics Management helps empower businesses to connect and manage logistics operations efficiently, regardless of size. Whether running small local operations or orchestrating global distribution, SAP鈥檚 latest AI-powered innovation can equip businesses with the tools and capabilities to thrive in highly competitive markets by enabling them to be connected, agile, and growth-oriented. Learn more about . 

Oyku Ilgar is part of 51风流Supply Chain Thought Leadership & Awareness.

As the business expanded, so did the complexity of its operations and the expectations of its customers. The existing manufacturing development team, focused on small-scale factory applications, found it increasingly difficult to keep up with the pace. The data was often locked in silos or other systems. To address this, Howdens set out to automate and collect data from multiple points across its supply chain. 

Considering off-the-shelf solutions that could be tailored to its needs, Howdens Joinery needed a solution that would continue to evolve with the company. Through a detailed assessment of several manufacturing execution systems (MES), Howdens Joinery decided to replace all outdated manufacturing execution systems with the  solution, making it the heartbeat of its production processes with the help of a featured partner, . 

Reinventing kitchens with an innovative and customer-centric process 

The kitchen has evolved from a simple cooking space into the heart of the home. Knowing this, Howdens Joinery has adapted its offerings to meet the changing needs of its customers. 鈥淭he kitchen market has changed a lot over the years,鈥� says David Peacock, IS Manufacturing System technical lead at Howdens Joinery. 鈥淲e don鈥檛 sell a kitchen; we provide a living space, the central part of their homes.鈥� 

Howdens expanded its range beyond the standard kitchen colors and styles. This approach enables customers to experiment with various colors and styles before making a final decision. 鈥淚t鈥檚 almost like a trial run,鈥� Peacock explains. 鈥淲e can see if a new color is worth adding to our main range. If it鈥檚 popular, we can roll it out on a larger scale.鈥� 

This strategy not only helps customers find the perfect kitchen but also provides Howdens with valuable feedback on what works best. To support this expanded offering, the company invested in a new factory and upgraded paint lines. These improvements enhanced production capacity and equipped the team with new skills and expertise. 

Traditionally, the company made a stock model, but now customers can visit depots and order kitchens in any color and style they want. 鈥淲e have a fast turnaround, with manufacturing and shipping taking just five days,鈥� Peacock says. 鈥淭o make this possible, we updated our entire order strategy and implemented the new system in less than 12 months.鈥� 

By embracing innovation and listening to customer needs, Howdens Joinery has successfully transformed its business to stay ahead in a competitive market, making it easier than ever for customers to get the kitchen they truly want. 

鈥淗aving our own homegrown MES provided us a clear view of what needed to be produced on each production line,鈥� he says. 鈥淚n real time, operators could start or stop orders and receive confirmations. And we continued to add more features and functionalities to our MES.鈥�

Reducing order production lead time from 21 days to 14 days 

Howdens Joinery faced two major challenges as it transformed its approach to kitchen manufacturing. The company sells the individual pieces of a kitchen, such as cabinet doors or shelves, that are ordered separately.听

Highlighting that the company is聽sales order-driven, Peacock further adds,聽鈥淲hen you convert the sales orders into production orders, you get a sort of production order per piece. Tracking this is easier said than done.鈥� Each聽piece follows a specific route through the factory, depending on its shape and the machinery it needs to pass through. Since the company isn鈥檛 selling finished panels that are simply waiting on a shelf, tracking each part and keeping everything together was a great challenge.听

Another major hurdle was managing the concept of process lots. Because of the specific routing required for different components, orders often needed to be split and sent down two separate production routes. These production orders would then be grouped into SFCs (shop floor controls), but this sometimes made the process more complicated rather than simpler. 

鈥淲e are potentially in a one-for-one relationship with the production order, so the SFC number became a bit redundant,鈥澛燩eacock explains. The complexity increased when multiple orders were launched simultaneously.听He adds: 鈥淲e might be launching different production orders at a time, but we did not want in [51风流Digital Manufacturing] the guys on the shop floor to press start 40 times.鈥澛燭his led the company to create a mechanism for efficiently grouping orders, allowing, for example, all orders of a certain color to be processed together on the same production line.听

鈥淲hen you purchase [51风流Digital Manufacturing], you鈥檙e not just buying manufacturing, but you’re buying the ability to build a manufacturing landscape. So you can do your own customizations,鈥� he adds. 

With 51风流Digital Manufacturing, Howdens Joinery enhanced operational efficiency and achieved a supporting mechanism to support both make-to-stock and make-to-order production models. 

Continuous improvement as a key driver for the future of manufacturing 

Howdens Joinery is leveraging diverse technologies in production systems. Particularly as a company expanding its manufacturing capabilities, this requires the integration of IT and operational technology, as well as seamless communication with machinery and the automation of production workflows鈥攕uch as custom 51风流Business Technology Platform (51风流BTP) processes and production connectors.听聽

With this integration, Howdens Joinery achieved direct communication with various types of machinery, thereby enhancing production efficiency and reducing the need for manual intervention. 

鈥淲ith 51风流Digital Manufacturing, we gained operational excellence in our supply chain processes, leading to more efficient planning and an enormous increase in production. We reduced order production lead time from 21 days to 14 days in 2023 to 2024, contributing to faster customer fulfillment,” Peacock says.

Moreover, Howdens achieved a 99.98% service level from primary sites to depots in 2024, demonstrating near-perfect product availability. “We will continue this journey of continuous improvement to deliver the best products for our customers,鈥� he says. 

The innovative manufacturer plans to replace its legacy MES systems with a fully digital manufacturing solution, ensuring streamlined and efficient operations. With robust data quality and a flexible approach to integrating new technologies, Howdens Joinery is planning to integrate AI into its manufacturing processes as the next step. Its proactive approach to utilizing new technology for operational excellence is a great industry example for the broader manufacturing community.  

To learn more about Howdens Joinery’s transformation story, check out the full customer story .听

Oyku Ilgar is part of 51风流Supply Chain Management Thought Leadership & Awareness.

Headquartered in Homberg (Ohm), Germany, with worldwide locations, in 2024 KAMAX generated 鈧�1 billion in revenue and employs 4,000 people dedicated to serving OEMs globally.

To maintain its competitive edge, the ambitious company embarked on a transformative journey to streamline its supply chain through digitalization and intelligent logistics management. This transformation centers around the deployment of (51风流EWM),  (51风流TM), and a comprehensive 51风流S/4HANA platform, supporting superior logistics efficiency, transparency, and sustainability.

Optimizing logistics at scale

Handling approximately 400 transports daily across multiple global plants, KAMAX manages two distinct logistics flows: goods pre-packed and stored in warehouses, and a “pack-to-order” system where items are packaged just before shipment. Currently, three plants operate on 51风流S/4HANA with 51风流Extended Warehouse Management and one pilot plant with 51风流Transportation Management integrated, while others are transitioning from 51风流ERP Central Component (51风流ECC).

The implementation of the advanced shipping and receiving process dramatically improved logistics transparency and efficiency.

“The use of the unified package builder, which leverages real data instead of estimates, allows us to provide precise shipping information to freight forwarders earlier in the process,” Jens Hoidem, director of IT Business Solutions at KAMAX, explained. This improvement enhances truck planning and communication with carriers, positively impacting the company’s logistics operations daily.

KAMAX collaborates exclusively with freight forwarders, working with approximately 20 carriers globally. At the advanced shipping and receiving pilot plant, about 60 deliveries per day are coordinated, involving around 2,000 handling units across five to six trucks. This network supports operational responsiveness without compromising control.

On premise today, cloud-ready tomorrow

Currently, three of KAMAX鈥檚 plants run on 51风流S/4HANA, with the remaining plants on 51风流ECC, all on an on-premises basis designed to be cloud-ready for future transitions.

Hoidem pinpointed the critical process improvements brought by advanced shipping and receiving in combination with 51风流Extended Warehouse Management and 51风流Transportation Management: 鈥淭he shipping registration now uses the unified package builder, relying on accurate, real data rather than estimated figures. This has substantially improved truck planning and early communication with our freight forwarders, impacting around 60 deliveries and about 2,000 handling units daily at our pilot plant.鈥�

Over 95 percent of KAMAX’s transport is by truck. “We maintain a global footprint close to our OEM customers to optimize delivery times and costs,鈥� Hoidem added. 鈥淲e currently engage about 70 to 80 different freight forwarders worldwide, facilitating diverse and dynamic transport needs.鈥�

Sustainability and process automation

KAMAX has a bold strategy for sustainability and aims for carbon neutrality by 2037. Implementation of 51风流Extended Warehouse Management and 51风流Transportation Management plays a crucial role in supporting KAMAX’s goal by enabling better route planning, efficient truck utilization, and minimizing empty runs.

鈥淩educing CO2 emissions through smarter transport management is a key project outcome,鈥� Hoidem added.

The German company is also actively advancing in automation. In China, KAMAX has piloted RFID technology integrated with automated guided vehicles (AGVs) to automate intra-logistics, reducing manual labor and enhancing productivity.

the company’s digital subsidiary, has developed an Operator Cockpit linked with 51风流Extended Warehouse Management for real-time monitoring and automated production order management. Using laser technology, KAMAX automated piece counting, saving about 40 labour hours in May at their Slovakian plant across 1,200 containers.

KAMAX plans to roll out 51风流Extended Warehouse Management, 51风流Transportation Management, and advanced shipping and receiving across all seven plants, progressively improving automation and digitalization of intralogistics processes. 鈥淲e aim to integrate AI for advanced receiving and transportation management, continuing to optimize costs and capacity,鈥� Hoidem shared.

Curious about how KAMAX鈥檚 journey to streamline and future-proof its supply chain? .

The manufacturer was heavily reliant on manual documentation, which caused delays in accessing and updating critical data and documents, resulting in data quality and compliance issues.

To address these challenges and optimize asset management, LESER sought to establish seamless data integration through a unified single source of truth. After thorough research and careful comparison of options, the valve manufacturer successfully chose to implement digital twin technology with to help optimize collaboration with customers.

Error-free asset data and streamlined collaboration with smart asset management

Relying on a manual documentation process was not only time-consuming but also prone to errors and delays. This was causing significant challenges in accessing and updating critical data and documents, leading to poor data quality and inefficiencies across the ecosystem. Recognizing the need for a modern solution on the operator side, LESER identified the importance of supporting customers with a centralized asset management system. LESER decided to digitize its asset management system by implementing a centralized, cloud-based platform. This platform enables LESER to seamlessly share the digital twin with customers, enhancing transparency and data sharing while continuing to manage internal processes separately.

By implementing the technology integrated with , LESER created a one-to-one virtual replica of each piece of physical equipment and product, consolidating all relevant data and documentation into a single, accessible platform.

鈥淭he digital twin acts as a precise digital mirror of the physical safety valve, enabling our customers to receive complete, error-free, and up-to-date data about the safety valves,鈥� Pierre Draheim, manager of Product Data Management at LESER, explains.

LESER provides digital twins both for new () and existing () safety valves, centralizing all relevant data and documents. Each valve is labeled with the globally-standardized ID link, or QR code, IEC聽61406聽that allows LESER’s customers to directly access and sync product-specific information with their asset management systems, enabling seamless data transfer, documentation compliance, and cost reductions of up to 95% for initial recording.

鈥淏y embracing digital innovation, we have empowered our customers to boost their operational efficiency,” Draheim says. He emphasizes that this not only helps LESER achieve substantial time-savings but also enables the company to focus on core activities and drive greater business growth: “It’s a win-win. Not only us, but also our customers achieve significant improvements in overall productivity.”

Reduce operational costs with real-time digital twin integration

Automating valve data sharing within has made it much easier for LESER operators and service providers to coordinate maintenance, eliminating the need for manual data reconciliation. This automation cuts down on administrative work, helps avoid unnecessary downtime, and optimizes spare parts inventory, all of which contributes to a substantial decrease in operational costs.

By standardizing and digitizing data with a globally-standardized ID link, multiple service providers get instant access to accurate, up-to-date information.

鈥淲ith the introduction of the digital twin and 51风流Business Network Asset Collaboration, we can now automate valve management, making the entire process faster and more reliable,鈥� Draheim says.

Ensure safety and quality through global and regulatory compliance

Making sure safety valves meet international standards at every step requires a high level of automation in managing product data. This is especially important for LESER. 鈥淐ompliance is not just about meeting regulations, but about the ‘rules of the game’ in the industry, which enable an automated exchange of information across different IT systems and stakeholders,鈥� Draheim says.

With such a significant market presence, LESER holds its suppliers and materials to very high standards, ensuring every part complies not only with global regulations but also local rules. This level of care is particularly essential for operators working in industries with strict safety and regulatory conditions.

Beyond setting these standards, LESER keeps detailed records to maintain full transparency and traceability across the supply chain. This integrated approach helps the ambitious company reduce the need for additional level approvals and supports safe, reliable plant operations all over the world. In return, its customers experience improved reliability and confidence in the products and services they receive, creating a positive impact throughout the entire value chain.

Oyku Ilgar is part of 51风流Supply Chain Thought Leadership & Awareness.

That is the reality. Behind all the talk of faster deployments and streamlined processes lies a deeper shift. It requires rethinking your data, core processes, and how teams work together. And this shift does not begin at go-live. It begins months earlier, with the questions asked and the foundations put in place.

Many companies still approach cloud ERP as an IT upgrade. But the success of these programs rarely comes down to just technology. It comes down to how well you prepare, how you approach process standardization, data readiness, governance, and change leadership.

Even with the best intentions, challenges still show up. Teams struggle to balance global templates with local needs. Subject matter experts do not always have the time to fully participate. Expectations around timelines and automation can be misaligned from the start.

In a , Abhishek Vasudevan, head of 51风流S/4HANA at Westernacher, shared his perspective on what separates successful ERP transformations from the rest — from the most critical prerequisites to the common mistakes and what ERP looks like when it truly enables the business.

Breaking down business challenges and expectations

鈥淒isconnected systems cause poor integration, data delays, and isolated teams,鈥� Vasudevan explained. 鈥淭he fragmentation creates barriers to real-time data visibility and integration, forcing reliance on manual work to piece together information from disparate sources. This slows decision-making and enforces artificial walls between business functions.鈥�

Switching to an integrated, modern cloud ERP platform helps businesses break down barriers and provides real-time, cross-functional data flow.

Vasudevan also highlighted a critical hurdle: 鈥淭here is a clear disconnect between how legacy users operate and the demands of moving to an integrated ERP system. The key question is whether the workforce can adapt to these changes and take on the challenges of adopting a new system and new ways of working.鈥�

But one misconception is expecting a fully integrated ERP to be operational quickly by simply activating system functions. Faster implementations — which can sometimes take weeks or months instead of years — depend heavily on an organization’s ability to standardize processes across sites while retaining competitive differentiators.

鈥淪uccess requires a phased “crawl, walk, run” approach focusing on processes, people, and standardization,鈥� further explained Vasudevan.

Before a company ever starts configuring a system or training users, there is foundational work that must be done to set the stage for success. These are the conversations and actions that happen behind the scenes 鈥� months before go-live 鈥� that ultimately determine whether the implementation will deliver value.

Essential prerequisites for a successful ERP implementation

An effective cloud ERP adoption starts long before go-live. Based on extensive experience across industries, Vasudevan outlines six critical areas organizations must focus on early:

1. Start with your data: Data is often the Achilles鈥� heel of ERP projects. Companies must start by understanding where their data lives, how clean it is, and whether it covers all critical business processes. That means assessing your sources early, ensuring completeness, and working with ERP experts to understand what fields matter and how your data should be structured.
2. Understand the technical preparation, especially for upgrades: Even if you are doing what feels like a technical upgrade — like moving from 51风流ECC to 51风流S/4HANA — there is still deep preparation involved. Organizations must think through customer-vendor integration, system sizing, platform readiness, and historical data decisions. These technical topics are not just backend items; they directly affect the ability to execute a project smoothly.
3. Rethink and standardize your processes: ERP implementations are a golden opportunity to simplify operations and remove legacy complexity. The more standardized processes are across regions, business units, and functions, the easier it becomes to scale and automate.
4. Set up strong governance from the start: You need the right structure in place to guide the program, enable fast decisions, and stay aligned. That includes a clear steering committee, empowered business leads, and a process for how deviations will be evaluated and approved.
5. Identify your internal change agent: Your system integrator will support change management, but someone from within your organization must to champion the change. This person should understand how things work today and be able to work across teams to bring clarity and alignment.
6. Start identifying key and end users and prepare a plan for them early: Do not wait until testing or training to engage end users: start early. Understand their day-to-day, shape the design through day-in-the-life scenarios, and roll out MVPs that invite feedback.

Listen to the full podcast episode here:

Coming up, we will explore the most common challenges businesses face during and after ERP implementation. From data readiness gaps to change resistance, we will unpack the patterns that often derail projects 鈥� and how to stay ahead of them.

The solution was clear: implement a cloud-based ERP architecture designed to adapt, scale, and drive a full-scale transformation.

Building strategy on speed and people

E.ON Digital Technology鈥檚 move to the cloud was never about chasing modernity for its own sake, but about seizing control in a fast-moving world. The company understood that transformation is not only about technology; it’s about people and their needs.

Together with employees, E.ON Digital Technology crafted a strategic vision to keep pace with rapid technological change while empowering teams to deliver real solutions. At the core of this transformation was the Digital Lighthouse Project, which became the guiding force through the complexities of digitization.

As Athanasios Tabakis, the lead of the Digital Lighthouse technology at E.ON Digital Technology, explained, 鈥淲e鈥檙e not just implementing isolated solutions; we鈥檙e building a platform that integrates speed, planning, reporting, cost transparency, and AI into one seamless ecosystem.鈥�

This cloud ERP foundation shattered old habits, igniting true transformation by putting agility and speed at the heart of the business.

Today, E.ON Digital Technology boasts an intuitive, adaptive, finance-first design, built around how people actually work. The company鈥檚 guiding principle remains unchanged: transformation doesn鈥檛 start with systems; it starts with trust and clarity.

Max Englisch, manager of Finance Transformation at , emphasized the human and scalable nature of the project: 鈥淭his has never just been about technology. It was about creating a vision that scales, brings people in, and drives real impact — not only for E.ON Digital Technology, but also across the entire company.鈥�

PwC Germany continues to support E.ON Digital Technology in rolling out this vision, ensuring the Digital Lighthouse remains a catalyst for change.

Beyond technology: culture, process, mindset

Standardizing across a complex group like E.ON Digital Technology involves far more than technical upgrades. It requires navigating cultural, operational, and political layers. The S/4 United Program, the backbone of Digital Lighthouse, launched the company鈥檚 journey toward 51风流S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition as the 鈥渕other ship鈥� guiding the entire enterprise.

Innovation layers were carefully added on top to balance strategic consistency with the flexibility to differentiate. Early work focused on identifying where processes could deliver efficiency and value, laying a solid foundation for future-proof operations. As Tabakis put it, 鈥淭he future of ERP is invisible. It anticipates your needs, speaks your language, and acts when it truly matters. It is not just digital; it is almost human.鈥�

E.ON Digital Technology鈥檚 transformation challenges the entrenched mindset of 鈥渢his is always how we鈥檝e always done it.鈥� In a heavily regulated and complex energy sector, data consistency is critical for both compliance and for confident decision-making. By building a semantic layer aligned with business logic, the company moves from fragmented inputs to coherent, faster decisions with increased accountability.

鈥淪uccess comes from those who relentlessly pursue their vision until it becomes a reality,” Englisch added. “That鈥檚 exactly what E.ON Digital Technology has achieved.鈥�

E.ON Digital Technology embraces AI and flexibility for the future

E.ON Digital Technology鈥檚 innovation journey did not stop at cloud ERP. Early adoption of transformed data into conversational insights. Now, the company is advancing toward agentic AI, where AI proactively supports decision-making by alerting teams to deviations and nudging interventions before the issues arise. In energy finance, where timing is everything, this responsiveness is a game changer.

Trust in AI remains paramount. Tabakis noted that 鈥渢rue confidence in AI comes when it aligns with how people think and work. Our mission is to build that trust step-by-step, helping people see AI not as a threat, but as a powerful ally to accelerate their work.鈥� This human-centered approach is essential in a world where half embrace AI鈥檚 promise and half fear its impact.

The energy transition itself demands agility. Renewables introduce volatility, and new consumption patterns like heat pumps and electric mobility add complexity. The grid must balance supply and demand in real time, pushing E.ON Digital Technology鈥檚 business units — and adding their IT teams — to stay flexible.

To manage this, E.ON Digital Technology relies on , a real-time financial management engine that mirrors actual usage, supports dynamic modeling, and scales with demand within the ERP. This technology allows the company to trace billions in value flows accurately and auditable, ensuring flexibility and compliance go hand in hand.

Englisch summarized the future vision: 鈥淭he future of ERP lies in creating an open, connected data foundation that integrates 51风流and non-51风流sources, enabling scalable data products and AI-ready architectures. It鈥檚 about moving beyond process efficiency to real-time insights that empower business users to unlock true value.鈥�

E.ON Digital Technology鈥檚 transformation journey shows how cloud ERP, combined with human centered approach and cutting-edge AI, can drive speed, trust, and agility in the complex, rapidly evolving energy landscape. It is a blueprint for how companies can not only adapt but also lead in the digital age.

With six locations and a rapidly expanding international presence, WestWood faced growing complexity in managing siloed data and keeping up with ever-evolving compliance requirements. The company鈥檚 small product safety team was stretched thin, struggling to maintain manual processes and ensure the highest standards across teams and departments. To better serve customers and streamline its operations, WestWood set out to find an integrated, automated solution.

To address these challenges, the German construction company adopted a comprehensive suite of cloud solutions, services, and learning resources to accelerate its digital transformation.

Working together with聽51风流gold partner , WestWood implemented and . WestWood unified business processes, standardized information management, and automated workflows across the company. This integrated approach made critical data accessible to all relevant teams, helping WestWood stay ahead of compliance regulations and support sustainable growth.

Automating product safety for innovation and growth

鈥淲e wanted a solution that automated important steps of our product safety processes and was flexible, so we can evolve our workflows as compliance standards change and our company expands into new markets and regions with dynamic requirements,鈥� explained Martin Wegner, product safety manager at WestWood.

The flexibility of WestWood鈥檚 products has spurred innovation, such as the growing trend of green roofs, which require robust waterproofing. 鈥淚t鈥檚 becoming increasingly popular to grow plants on roofs, creating a 鈥榞reen roof鈥� that is environmentally friendly and improves air quality,” Wegner added. “New construction trends such as this encourage us to continuously innovate.鈥�

Given that many of WestWood鈥檚 protective, decorative, and slip-resistant finishes require special handling, product safety and compliance are mission-critical. Previously, these processes were manually and fragmented across departments, making it difficult for the small team to keep up with changing regulations.

Harnessing automation for superior customer service

With , WestWood automated the delivery of product safety information. Now, every customer automatically receives up-to-date safety data sheets with their orders, and these updates can be sent instantly to all previous customers, ensuring safe and compliant use of WestWood products. Previously, this was a time-consuming manual process. Thanks to the automated customer service process, now over 24,000 e-mails are sent automatically each year, saving time and ensuring compliance.

鈥淎utomating this process is an amazing time-saver,” Wegner noted. 鈥淚t makes our lives so much easier and helps us ensure the latest safety and usage instructions are reliably available to our customers.鈥� Centralized data management also provides a continuously updated, auditable track record of all product safety activities.

Automation has also improved internal processes. The product safety team now receives automated notifications whenever product safety information is needed and can easily support multiple languages and fulfill local compliance requirements and regulations.

According to Wegner, 鈥淎s we expand into new markets, the built-in internationalization features of 51风流S/4HANA will be crucial to our success and help us deliver outstanding customer service and support sustainable processes in compliance with local regulations.鈥� This enables WestWood to have faster, more practical management of customer orders for around 10 users across 3 departments, supporting the innovative company鈥檚 global expansion.

鈥淭hanks to 51风流S/4HANA for product compliance, it is impossible to forget things,” Wegner said. “No information gets delayed in communication between departments, and customers instantly receive the latest safety and usage information for our products.鈥�

Streamlining workflows and supporting sustainability

With 51风流S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition, and support from Innovabee, WestWood no longer needs to run on-premises IT systems and can focus on adding value for its customers.

Building on the success of its implementation, WestWood plans to further streamline its operations. The ambitious company aims to consolidate two systems for dangerous goods management into a single 51风流application. They are also planning to fully automate label printing, which is an important step as new regulations require larger font sizes and more detailed information. Automatic label printing based on existing product data will optimize management, eliminate redundancies, and save significant time and effort.

WestWood is also committed to sustainability. By reducing paper use and leveraging integrated solutions from SAP, the company is expanding its sustainability management and reporting capabilities. Streamlining and automating compliance with documentation and labeling guidelines, as well as managing hazardous chemicals, allows WestWood to protect the environment at every stage — from production plants and warehouses to end customers.

Improved insights and reporting are also helping WestWood future-proof its business and stay competitive in an industry shifting toward greater environmental, social, and governance transparency.

To learn more, read WestWood’s customer story: .

Its equipment and personnel operate in some of the harshest environments on Earth. Every piece of equipment is vital for safe, efficient operations; even minor failures can cause significant downtime, production losses, or safety risks.

Maintenance costs for oil, gas, and energy companies are substantial, involving helicopters, specialized technicians, and strict safety protocols. A single maintenance trip can cost hundreds of thousands of euros, while unplanned downtime can result in millions in losses.听聽

Recognizing these challenges, Aker BP decided to embrace digitalization to improve efficiency and safety. Its goal was to build an infrastructure where equipment could communicate its needs proactively, alerting operators well before problems occur.听

To realize this vision, Aker BP implemented as a hub for condition-based maintenance (CBM). In partnership with , the company leveraged and (51风流BTP) as well as artificial intelligence and machine learning to automate maintenance and enable predictive, data-driven decision-making.听

Vision behind Aker BP鈥檚 digital ambitions

Within the company, the key challenge was not just collecting data but making it actionable. Knowing the importance of digitalization, Aker BP decided to deepen the understanding of available data and use it effectively for informed decision-making while ensuring thorough documentation of these decisions.

鈥淚n Aker BP, we have a strong ambition to modernize and digitalize the way we work,” shared Torben Kristensen, Advanced Reliability engineer at Aker BP. “It is not just an ambition, it is a necessity.鈥�

Operating Normally Unmanned Installations (NUIs), Aker BP required robust monitoring solutions to gain clear insights into system health and to anticipate maintenance tasks ahead of time. This proactive approach was crucial given the remote and automated nature of the company鈥檚 facilities. 

Aker BP knows that automation is integral to achieving these objectives. The company decided to automate the processing and management of the decisions made in the previous steps to enhance efficiency and accuracy.听

Putting plan into action

The foundation of the project was the use of 51风流Asset Performance Management to create a robust CBM hub. To meet Aker BP鈥檚 unique needs, the team leveraged standard building blocks from 51风流BTP to extend 51风流Asset Performance Management with the asset data onboarding application to manage data ingestion and integrate third-party alerts.听

The challenges were efficiently collecting and processing time-series data and real-time alerts. With the assistance of Lighthouse, the team developed a custom onboarding application to streamline the data ingestion process for smooth integration and accurate real-time monitoring.听聽

鈥淥ur goal is to establish a comprehensive maintenance strategy that eliminates unknown breakdowns on critical equipment,” explained Kim Alexander J酶rgensen, operations manager for Reliability and CBM at Aker BP. “By leveraging real-time data and condition-based maintenance, we aim for zero unknown failures, ensuring optimized reliability across our operations.鈥�

Using the data from 51风流S/4HANA allows engineers to fine-tune how thresholds for various assets are set; alerts are only triggered when necessary, avoiding interruptions. This integration meant that the system was always working with accurate, up-to-date information, which is critical for timely and effective decision-making.听

Recognizing the value of third-party specialist systems that had years of accumulated knowledge about specific equipment, Aker BP focused on integrating alerts and events from these systems into the 51风流Asset Performance Management hub. This integration allowed Aker BP to benefit from external expert data without duplicating efforts, with maintenance responses based on real-time information.听

The condition monitoring was handled in silos by different specialist systems, leading to inefficiencies and manual processes. The team created a unified overview page on 51风流BTP that consolidates data ingestion, alert management, and monitoring in one place, allowing engineers to manage alerts more efficiently and ensure that responses are timely and well coordinated.听

Seamless user experience meets workflow efficiency

With the CBM hub, engineers now have a comprehensive view of system activities at their fingertips. The heartbeat overview continuously monitors both core and third-party systems, making sure they are operational and providing confidence in the reliability of the data. This also allows engineers to quickly detect any issues that may arise during the data ingestion process.听

Alerts from multiple sources offer details on system health, maintenance needs, or potential failures. Presented hierarchically, these alerts help users prioritize and easily access the most relevant, actionable information. 

The 2020 migration to 51风流S/4HANA was a key milestone, enabling integration of various 51风流applications with 51风流Asset Performance Management. This links alerts from asset performance management to business processes like work orders and notifications. For example, an聽 51风流Asset Performance Management alert triggers an notification with context-specific data, allowing immediate action without switching systems.听

Integration with third-party systems adds further context, including links to original alerts in source systems for deeper analysis. By centralizing maintenance data, Aker BP has integrated multiple 51风流applications into 51风流Asset Performance Management, facilitating seamless workflows and supporting the growing scale and complexity of operations.听

Fine-tuning was essential after implementation, as alerts were initially too frequent. The team introduced a 鈥渕ass close鈥� feature to categorize multiple alerts as false positives or data anomalies, maintaining transparency by recording closure reasons and enhancing future learning. Additionally, engineers can now add comments to alerts, documenting and sharing findings directly within the system. 

Business benefits and what lies ahead for Aker BP 

51风流Asset Performance Management has provided significant business value to Aker BP, including increased operational efficiency through automated monitoring and maintenance, which allows engineers to focus on critical tasks. Cost savings have been achieved through reduced emergency repairs and lower operational expenses, and real-time monitoring improves safety by identifying potential issues before they escalate, particularly in high-risk environments.听

The company implemented proactive maintenance, driven by AI and machine learning, and now can estimate potential failures, which has helped the company to minimize downtime and extended the asset lifespan. The system’s centralized data — integrated with 51风流S/4HANA — enhances data accessibility and interpretation, while its scalability means it can handle Aker BP鈥檚 growing operations.

鈥淔or our new project, ‘Yggdrasil,’ starting up in 2027, this solution is a prerequisite,鈥� said Terje Lindrupsen, senior maintenance engineer at Aker BP.

The company plans to expand this solution to all of its brownfield and greenfield installations, and also plans to transition to the latest Internet of Things (IoT) capabilities in 51风流Asset Performance Management, embedded IoT, in 2025, enabling even more advanced real-time monitoring capabilities.听聽

As the company expanded, ONTRAS sought better visibility across its operations, especially those carried out by service providers. Manual communication interfaces led to information loss, hindering operational efficiency and service quality. To address these challenges, ONTRAS aimed to improve field operations with offline capabilities, ensuring better data integrity for uninterrupted operations and much faster response times.

After thorough research, the German utility company implemented smart forms within to capture and monitor real-time data from its field operations. supported ONTRAS throughout the implementation process, serving as the interface to 51风流and customizing and enhancing 51风流Field Service Management, including customizing the 51风流Field Service Management, connector for 51风流ERP, in order to meet the company鈥檚 specific requirements.

Faster process runtime with improved data visibility at ONTRAS

Working with a large external staff and a dispersed system led to a significant data gap.

Ines Kurmies, an 51风流specialist at ONTRAS, explained: “Our internal staff extracted data from SAP, while external staff used a manual Excel logging process, which made it difficult to understand the status of orders.鈥�

The external staff was receiving the orders through the 51风流system, but it was not possible to track their work. Feedback was received within the 51风流system only after completion, and the logs were uploaded to SAP, which meant the company lacked visibility into the steps in between.

ONTRAS needed a solution to maintain maintenance plans and functional locations within 51风流while providing access to external service providers via an interface. The company sought comprehensive data integration and a single source of truth with real-time data monitoring.

With the full integration of logs and smart forms, ONTRAS can now guide technicians through tasks, capture data, and provide a structured way to document the inspection process in real-time. Integrating these disparate systems created a single source of truth, helping the company eliminate inefficiencies and data gaps, enabling faster process runtime.

鈥淲ith the full integration of logs and smart forms, we achieved a much faster checklist revision,鈥� Eva Scholl, a maintenance engineer at ONTRAS, shared. 鈥淣ow we have an end-to-end digital process, so the process runtime in itself is one of the greatest benefits.鈥�

Real-time data and comprehensive tracking are crucial for preventative maintenance, rapid response to issues, and compliance.

During a gas pipe fitting inspection, the company’s system creates an order dispatched to a service provider, the responsible specialist, who then assigns it to an assembler. The assembler inspects the fittings, logging their work using smart forms in 51风流Field Service Management. This information is sent back to the responsible specialist, who reviews and completes the order. Finally, an audit report is generated as a PDF and transferred to 51风流Plant Maintenance Rapid Mart, where the company can view and process the inspection results. Without this real-time data flow, a faulty fitting might go unnoticed, leading to a gas leak and potential safety hazard.

The company can see what order is dispatched when it is processed and what the status is.

鈥淣ow, field sales representatives have more information and experience less information loss because they directly see the order from us — exactly what we want to see,鈥� Scholl added. 鈥淧reviously, there was a manual communication interface, which inevitably led to information loss.鈥�

Running safe, efficient, compliant operations in remote and challenging environments

For utility companies, inspecting and maintaining natural gas pipelines in remote rural areas is crucial. These locations often suffer from unreliable internet connectivity, leading to potential data gaps.

ONTRAS has significantly improved its field operations by implementing offline capabilities. Technicians can now conduct inspections, record findings, and complete digital checklists directly on their mobile devices on-site, even without internet access. Once back in an area with connectivity, all data automatically syncs to the central system, updating records and informing supervisors of completed work.

鈥淲ith 51风流Field Service Management, there is the app that can be connected to all applications,” Kurmies added. “We achieved the broadest coverage of our use cases for the first time, with many already covered by the standard product.鈥�

As the company continues to grow, the German Association of Gas and Water Compartments regulations are a central component, implemented to guarantee the technical security of the installations and the security of supply.

With 51风流Field Service Management, the company can now operate offline remotely without internet coverage and maintain the patching and checklist functions. This is especially important for technicians in remote areas lacking internet connectivity. Technicians must adhere to strict safety protocols and document every step. Offline checklists and patching functions ensure that no steps are missed, even in remote locations.

鈥淭his was the big challenge that we are also becoming more and more digital,” Kurmies further explained. “You also want to provide digital protocol templates and we simply reached our limits.鈥�

Convista played a crucial role in guiding the company through the 51风流implementation process, acting as the interface between 51风流and the company while adjusting 51风流Field Service Management to meet ONTRAS鈥� specific needs.

Heiko Winkler, IT manager at ONTRAS, highlighted the reliability and commitment of Convista as an implementation partner: “Convista is an exceptionally reliable and committed partner. Even in the second phase of the project, which was initially considered high-risk, their expertise and dedication ensured a successful implementation.”

Winkler noted the significant creativity applied to advising on the implementation, especially considering the initial uncertainty about its feasibility.听Additionally, the company collaborated with for the technical implementation of the 51风流Field Service Management, connector for 51风流ERP, and made several adjustments to the setup and error messages. The entire implementation took approximately a year and a half.

The company currently uses 51风流ERP Central Component and is transitioning to , having already implemented 51风流Field Service Management. Winkler noted that they strategically rely on cloud products: 鈥淥ur philosophy is not cloud only, but cloud first.鈥�

ONTRAS aims to advance further with smart forms and continue to expand its 51风流S/4HANA implementation in the near future.

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Bosch Rexroth AG, one of the world’s leading providers of tailor-made system solutions in drive and control technology, aimed to improve its customer experience by providing technicians with the right qualifications and quality service while increasing overall productivity.

The business transformation success of Bosch Rexroth is demonstrated through how its premium-quality support has been a key driver of success.

Taking Customer Experience to the Next Level

Bosch Rexroth aims for real-time scheduling and seamless communication, which allows service technicians to respond to customer requests and resolve issues faster. Scheduling technicians based on their skills, availability, and location — ensuring the right technician with the right expertise and tools — helped the company not only increase productivity, but also take the overall customer experience to the next level.

“We need to make sure that the right quality and the right people with the right qualifications are on the road,” said Carsten Breitenbach, project manager at Bosch Rexroth, in the webinar . “The wrong planning not only costs us money as a company, but also causes customers to lose trust.鈥�

He added,鈥淚t significantly improves our response times and enables better route planning and resource allocation resulting in lower operating and maintenance costs and he continues.”

Facilitating real-time communication between customers, technicians, and support teams enables technicians to collaborate with support teams and access experts remotely to resolve complex customer issues. By having access to the customer database and service history on their mobile devices, technicians can diagnose and resolve issues quickly.鈥淭echnicians can see where they need to go, where is the site address, and who is the contact person directly on their mobile devices,鈥� Breitenbach explained.

Digitization also helped customers to easily schedule appointments. Now they can track job progress and provide feedback through self-service portals and mobile apps.

Highlighting that customers have been given positive feedback about the digitalization of the overall service, Breitenbach concluded: 鈥淲ith FSM [field service management], the technicians can focus on the job and spend more time with the customer instead of paper-processed administrative tasks. We also hear feedback from customers that they love to see us becoming digitalized.鈥�

Maximizing Workforce Productivity

Amid this exciting paradigm shift in the field service sector, many companies continue to rely on outdated, inefficient systems.

鈥淲hen the complexity is bigger, this is nothing you can handle with Excel or Outlook,” Breitenbach shared. “This is why we decided to implement the FSM application.”

Highlighting how time-consuming was the former process within the company, he further explained: 鈥淥ur technicians had to enter the hours manually into the timesheet. Now, the data is available immediately and you can directly start the invoice process. We could reduce the reporting time from weeks to days. With FSM, we achieved not only a faster process but also reduced the effort of manual input鈥�

By simplifying the processes and leveraging digital tools, Bosch Rexroth recognized that a user-friendly and intuitive digital system was crucial for its adoption and success.

鈥淚f you adopt new digital services, it must be simple,鈥� Breitenbach added. “If it’s too complex, people will simply not use it. It is very important to make the job easier, not hinder them on the job.”

Within Bosch Rexroth, different countries and business units were using their own FSM applications. The company needed to bring them together in just one pilot project and have a common field service management template.

“One of our main goals was to seamlessly integrate automated booking and back-end ERP integration without disrupting existing systems in Europe,” Christopher Thiesen, solution manager for CRM at Bosch Industrial Technology, shared in the .

Without making any changes to the ERP system but utilizing the ongoing systems, Bosch built a flexible system that enables seamless communication within each division, business unit, and country where it is needed.

Meeting Regulations and Legal Requirements with Standardization

Acknowledging the importance of keeping up with the increasing governmental regulations and legal requirements, procedures, and industry standards, Bosch Rexroth integrated field service processes to support compliance with local rules and regulations.

鈥淭he last goal was the harmonization and standardization of field service execution,” Breitenbach added. “We try to harmonize as much as possible and use standards wherever possible. This certainly helps us to achieve a common quality standard.鈥�

Bosch Rexroth now has the flexibility offered by FSM, allowing the company to adapt to different regulatory environments.

Growing Revenue Generation

Through a guided approach and data collection, Bosch Rexroth has witnessed remarkable growth in revenue generation. According to Breitenbach, “Boosting the sales lead generation helped us to generate revenue. We did not expect such a high result.”

The implementation of FSM transformed its sales process by directly guiding technicians to ask a set of specific questions. By doing so, Bosch Rexroth ensured the collection of accurate and relevant data, guaranteeing the quality of the information gathered. This valuable data is then seamlessly transferred to the customer relationship management (CRM) tool through an interface. As Breitenbach further explained, “Then the sales guys can take up the lead and follow on that potential.”

By simplifying the processes and leveraging digital tools, Bosch Rexroth has streamlined operations, enhanced customer satisfaction, and empowered its field service technicians with a user-friendly, flexible, and simple solution. Witnessing a remarkable growth in revenue generation, Bosch Rexroth achieved a common quality standard while accommodating country-specific regulations.

By embracing the power of , Bosch Rexroth has established a competitive advantage and continues to thrive in the ever-evolving business landscape.

Oyku Ilgar is a marketing specialist for Digital Supply Chain at SAP.

Offering more than 10,000 products to 50,000 customers in over 50 markets, BSH has a factory network of more than 40 sites and 150 warehouses and distribution centers. With the goal of making life better for customers through world-class home appliances and services, the company prides itself on product and supply chain innovation.

During the pandemic, answering the increasing demand for reliable products and delivery dates was particularly difficult. Moreover, changing long-term customer needs due to strong seasonality and new distribution channels were added as new challenges. The ongoing manual planning and execution processes at BSH were not enough to provide customers with the information they need, on-time and in the form they want.

Knowing the key to achieve risk resiliency in the ever-changing VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous) world is to enable transparency and visibility in supply chain operations, BSH Home Appliances Group chose the and to coordinate business planning and execution functions for enhancing the customer experience.

Building Risk Resilience in the VUCA World

Businesses are planning for the perfect world but executing in a VUCA world where things don鈥檛 always go to plan. As a global producer of home appliances, BSH needed to change the operating environment to match continuously increasing and changing demand to the restricted supply. To manage this, the company needed to build risk resilience within its supply chain operations.

BSH aimed to synchronize planning, manufacturing, and logistics operations to achieve high levels of transparency and visibility into supply chain operations for resolute and agile decision-making processes.

鈥淣o matter how well we can plan product allocation and order promising, if we鈥檙e not able to execute and deliver as planned, everything falls flat. We need synchronization and collaboration between our planning and execution functions,鈥� says Bernard Czap, senior project leader S&OP Transformation & Order Promising at BSH.

The company followed a comprehensive process integration 鈥� from planning to order processing and fulfillment 鈥� while integrating sales and operations, production planning, and scheduling processes. With this seamless integration, the company can now manage bottlenecks, with allocation concepts to handle scarcity, allowing it to be more reliable when it comes to order promising and fulfillment.

Keeping the Promises High and Stock Levels Low

The company primarily followed two approaches for enabling this transformation. The first approach was to replace the previous push-based planning process with a pull-based system. This means designing the entire supply chain to adapt to unexpected changes instead of predicting what product variants customers would purchase in the upcoming months.

The second approach was to achieve a lean production system, which was seen as the key to stability. This required the ability to level聽product mix and volume, for example, by producing the same appliances every Monday at the same time and achieving a fixed structure to balance production and streamline suppliers鈥� processes.

With , BSH now only produces the predefined quantity of appliances that have been removed from the warehouses. In other words, BSH produces what is sold. Also, by decoupling the inventory, BSH achieved a valuable buffer against unexpected disruptions by standardizing manufacturing operations. This enabled the company to reduce inventory costs while improving customer satisfaction.

鈥淲ith demand-driven material requirements planning, we are reducing our stocks and improving our ability to deliver to our customers at the same time,鈥� adds Michael Huber, global program lead for Digital Supply Chain at BSH.

Enable Demand-Driven Predictive and Prescriptive Planning

By leveraging with and establishing the sales and operations () process, BSH can use forecasts as input parameters for calculating its stock. This enables the company to ensure that there are the right products in the right amount at the right time.

鈥淲ith the 51风流Integrated Business Planning application for response and supply, we consistently combine the tactical operational planning with the actual execution of day-to-day business 鈥� in other words, supply chain execution and fulfillment,鈥� says Czap. 鈥淏ottleneck management, allocation concepts to handle scarcity, and to be much more reliable in what we tell our customers when it comes to order promising became the main capability to drive the company, especially in a notorious situation of worldwide supply shortages.鈥�

With the , BSH has improved forecasting and sales planning with automated and semiautomated functionalities for demand sensing, not only for long-term but also short-term forecasting of products. The helped bring cross-functional teams from across the company together to agree on the same figures. And the helped ensure and improve the demand-driven supply of its multi-level value chain network.

鈥淲ith 51风流Integrated Business Planning for Supply Chain, we can now handle customer orders even better: which location must be supplied, when, and how so that production and logistics can coordinate their activities and deliver orders on time and as required,鈥� says Dietmar Baumann, global program lead for Digital Supply Chain at BSH.

After the implementation success in China, BSH is planning to roll out the response and supply application company-wide, including integration with all its markets, factories, warehouses, and material groups. To ensure that planning is properly executed on the delivery side, the company is in the early stages of employing 51风流Business Network for Logistics, , and that can be integrated with 听补苍诲 .

Bechtle, one of Europe鈥檚 most well-known offering more than 40,000 hardware and software products to the industrial and public sector, is a prime example of how Industry 4.0 works in the real world.

When Bechtle set a goal to boost its e-commerce business by 250%, it required handling approximately two times as many packages. And when COVID-19 forced people to spend more time at home, the demand for home office equipment boomed.

To meet high this high demand, Bechtle needed to employ more warehouse workers to increase its delivery capacity. However, due to low unemployment in the region, finding workers was difficult. This led the innovative company to think out of the box.

Knowing that current manual warehouse processes could not support the goal, Bechtle searched for a new solution. The answer was to transform 聽services with Industry 4.0. by deploying 聽in its warehouse to transform supply chain operations.

The integration of robotics within its warehouse was seen as an important first step in the company鈥檚聽听箩辞耻谤苍别测.

Bridging the Gap Between Manual Processes and Automation

Bechtle recently co-innovated with 51风流integrating autonomous mobile robots with 51风流Extended Warehouse Management (51风流EWM).

delivers predefined scenarios that integrate autonomous mobile robots of virtually any vendor very easily. Robots navigate through the warehouse using LIDAR, laser scanners, or 3D cameras to enable simultaneous localization and mapping in a warehouse to operate safely, side by side with humans.

鈥淲ith 51风流Warehouse Robotics, we have found a way to manage our warehouse even more effectively and flexibly, and provide better support to our employees,鈥� said Klaus Kratz, director of Logistics at Bechtle Logistik & Service GmbH. 鈥淥ur customer promise is 鈥榚ach order should be shipped on the same day.鈥欌��

Enhancing the Customer Experience

Bechtle retains 25,000 square meters of storage area to manage, the equivalent of more than three football fields.

As a first step, the company looked at automating cross-docking operations, where goods arrive at the receiving dock and are issued directly to a customer order instead of being put away into storage. The robot moves a cart and drops it at the shipping dock. A planned second step will be the automation of put-away operations. As a result, Bechtle calculates聽of costs in these operations.

Automated logistics does not only shape supply chains to be leaner but also helps keep deliveries on time.

鈥淲e proved that Industry 4.0 efforts, such as adding robotics to warehouse operations, can directly enhance the customer experience as well,鈥� said Christian Deppisch, head of Innovation Management at Bechtle Logistik & Service GmbH. 鈥淚magine a customer orders the product at 4:00 p.m. and the product will be handed over to the carrier on the same day, despite the high level of order volumes.鈥�

This process integration was complete in about four weeks 鈥� quite a time savings compared to traditional integration projects that can typically take up to 18 months.

Rise of Human Empowerment

Automating flexible聽聽makes operations much easier to maintain. The new process will help free up human employees from repetitive tasks, redeploying them to other value-added tasks, and ease their workload.

鈥淎s we were considering the logistics problem, we needed to carefully manage organizational change,鈥� said Kratz. 鈥淲e had to communicate clearly to our staff that flexible automation was the only way to meet our goals and that we would continue to value their contribution by expanding their qualification toward more demanding and customer-individual tasks, and relieving them from monotonous activities.鈥�

Operators enjoy the freedom of leveraging robots from different suppliers, through聽, which makes it easy to cover spikes in demand.

In the near future, the innovative IT provider is also planning to expand the use of robotics 鈥� such as using robotic arms in operations 鈥� within its warehouse operations. By socializing robots with human employees in an integrated unified ecosystem, the company is on its way to double the revenue in the next 10 years, from 鈧�5 billion in 2020 to 鈧�10 billion in 2030.