Success factors in the collaboration with limbiq:
Communication - The project team of both companies maintained a close and structured exchange with defined milestones and clearly assigned responsibilities
Equity - both parties worked together as equals to jointly drive the success of the project
Flexibility - limbiq showed the necessary flexibility to implement the manufacturer's requirements quickly and fully
Standard processes - limbiq relied on proven standard processes and project management practices to implement the platform
Easy to use - The limbiq platform is easy to use and convinces users
Fast integration - The processing of the various data formats was implemented quickly to generate rapid added value
As a global manufacturing company with subsidiaries and production facilities in all parts of the world, this company relies on a functioning intra-company supply chain. The main routes for this supply chain are between Europe / Germany, where the company's headquarters are located, and the subsidiaries in North America, China and India. Over 2,000 containers are shipped between these locations per year and over 100 of these are continuously in-transit.
Because of this complexity, the challenges in executing and monitoring the supply chain are multi-faceted:
- It is not uncommon for delays and route changes to occur
- Containers are loaded onto ships that leave later than expected
- There was no visibility into where the goods were when they were in transit or in the carriers' depots.
These challenges led to concrete disruptions in operations:
- Delivery scheduling was proving very difficult.
- Deadlines were confirmed incorrectly. This led to
- disruptions in production
- Incorrectly confirmed deadlines to customers
- Customer satisfaction suffered in some places due to the delays that were not their fault
- High coordination effort via e-mail and Excel to manage the supply chain and obtain information from the shipowners' websites.
- Associated with the above-mentioned disruptions were also financial losses and increased, actually avoidable, expenses.
The solution - go-live in 3 months.
The implementation of the limbiq platform at this customer was done in three steps and in a period of three months.
I. Process analysis
The manufacturer relies entirely on the limbiq platform to achieve its goals. As part of a process analysis, the processes were first recorded and visualized. From this, the systems used, system breaks, the partners involved and integration requirements could be determined.
II. Develop and implement SCM data model.
The limbiq platform can be individually adapted to specific customer requirements. Therefore, the manufacturer defined which information from the SAP system should be transferred to the limbiq platform. Subsequently, the data formats with which the original data from the SAP system will be enriched were agreed with the logistics partners. These are, for example, the container and time-based processes as well as the stations and MBL.
III Go-Live and Hypercare Phase
After the process analysis and the definition of the data model, limbiq provided the interfaces and after a short introduction all parties could track their deliveries directly in limbiq and benefit from the enrichments like automatic container tracking.
Due to the structured approach, the manufacturer achieved an implementation of the project from kick-off to go-live in less than 3 months.
As a result, deviations in schedules, routes or downtimes can now be automatically reported to the responsible parties so that they can take immediate countermeasures. This no longer requires any cumbersome coordination by e-mail. Likewise, all process data is digitally recorded and is thus available for performance analyses.
Since limbiq was able to implement the existing data models, none of the parties involved had to make any system adjustments. Investments already made in the supply chain remained in place. Manual efforts were eliminated and processes are now transparent and can be optimized.
Production downtime due to lack of transparency and missed customer deadlines are now a thing of the past.
Internal success factors for rapid implementation.
As success factors, the customer identified that in particular the understanding of all parties involved for the processes, which resulted from the process analysis, contributed significantly to the success. In addition, a common understanding of the goals was developed and the internal interests of the individual participants were taken into account. It was also important that all those involved were able to quickly agree on global standards for the data model.