Digital transformation for everyone!

The respondents have something in common: they belong to the larger companies and they do not (yet) come so often from the manufacturing industry. The situation is different for the Pakic company from Elchingen near Ulm, which comes from the metalworking industry.

But from the beginning. When I met with Peter Fassbinder from SAP partner SMS Business Software Solution, it was about his addition to SAP Business One. For me, it was a journey into my past. It was interesting to see how the SAP Business One solution introduced by my team in Germany at the time had evolved.

SAP's approach has remained the same, namely that customers can obtain a tailored industry solution with additional solutions from partners. And that's how the digital transformation comes to the SME market. The first thing you noticed at Pakic was that nothing was different. The typical smell of lubricants and sounds of working machines and compressors. Except that there were few employees operating the unusually large machinery with CNC, welding, laser cutting machines and more. The large number of robots and cobots is also noticeable.

While walking through the production, the owners clarified the situation: "Information is not dominating knowledge", says Belizar Pakic.

"Every employee can view all information relevant to production, including production planning. This allows employees to coordinate their own workload optimization."

Then I noticed the tablets with magnetic backs that are available at all machines. The information on available resources, the production steps still required and the order status can be read there. Changes are displayed in real time.

"Competing with large companies in the area, employee ownership helps us retain them and increase motivation. Even a wiki is available"Pakic said.

This seems to spur the employees and the management on each other. The aforementioned cobots are relatively new. The "K" stands for "cooperative." Cooperative robots work in close association with humans, have much better sensor technology, and are oriented to the forces that a human exerts on a tool or workpiece.

This allows the user to be supported without danger even in complex tasks. Programming should be so easy that it can be learned quickly and by anyone. An important component for the decentralized and self-optimizing control of production.

Communication with customers and suppliers takes place via Business One and SMS. With only 1.5 employees, the entire administration takes place. The connection to the production planning and expectation by the customers is made possible by an EDI interface. Customers give access to their expected quantities coming from their production planning.

Although these are not binding, they give Pakic the opportunity to plan better and produce efficiently based on their experience and utilization of the machines and warehouse capacities. In addition to the management, the employees also play a major role here, providing their knowledge and capacity.

"Today, everyone works in a much more relaxed way. Many innovations and suggestions for improvement also come from the employees. They are knowledge carriers and notice that they are taken seriously and that many ideas are also implemented." is the conclusion of Damir Pakic.

Digital transformation starts in the mind. Here, the opportunity was taken to spread this over many heads and to take the employees along with us. This also applies to the further development of the software. The managing director of the SAP partner does not go home from such a customer visit without a list of suggestions for improvements and enhancements. That is another effect: many heads have many ideas, and the digital transformation is a permanently improving process.