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Wärtsilä Case Study
Wärtsilä integrates activities The manufacturer of engines for power plants and ships, Wärtsilä Vaasa factory started already about five years ago a project to find a solution for electronic data transfer with its suppliers. At the time the goal was, according to IS Manager Ossi Kuurila, to decrease mistakes, save "hassling costs" and most of all to get the production management into tighter control, because manual methods had not resulted in tight enough management." "As the things were handled manually and as there were a terrible amount of transactions, it was very difficult to refine information in such a way that one could identify problematic spots and could tackle the right things. Many times people tackled wrong things at the factory and didn't get enough results, which would point to the right direction", he says. According to Wärtsilä's own statistics even the deliveries by VM-Group were in bad shape, even though they had in fact always been almost 100 percent perfect, prompt and on time. "People did not want to record information into the system only for the sake of consolidation, but instead took care of things in the phone, on paper and in their own heads. If we had changed a delivery date ourselves, nobody updated it to the system, and that was why our own statistics were not reliable", says Kuurila. According to Peter Koistinen, the Managing Director at VM-Group, shortcomings of data transfer caused problems also to his company, which supplies sheet components to Wärtsila. The company would have wanted, for example, to get all information about the changes to orders quickly into its own process, but often this did not happen. "As things were handled manually, information was going from one person to another and lying on the tables. Information which was important to the process could get stuck anywhere", says Koistinen. In the worst case VM-Group might have been working - in the midst of a busy working situation - on an order, which had been in fact cancelled by Wärtsilä. Information about cancellation, however, never reached the supplier. Before VM-Group also had to manufacture parts to the stock, because the orders were based on the need originally estimated by the customer and not on the actual need near to the moment of delivery. NetEDI provided the solution In its own studies some years ago also VM-Group came to a conclusion that at that time the technology was still too rigid and expensive for electronic data transfer. Few years ago Wärtsilä Vaasa Factory finally decided to choose EDI standard as a basis for its electronic data transfer, because it had strictly defined data contents. Instead of traditional EDI, however, Wärtsilä chose Anilinker's NetEDI, which is, according to Kuurila, the smartest and most functional solution at the market place. "Compared to the earlier EDI solutions Anilinker's EDI concept is of totally different calibre. It is many times lighter, cheaper and more flexible, but still it makes it possible to transfer data in defined form electronically", he emphasizes. At VM-Group people also realized the benefits of ANI solution, although in the beginning the commitment with only one operator raised some doubts in Koistinen. It appeared soon, however, that in the future EDI operator will begin to cooperate much in the same way as mobile operators do, so the possibilities for data transfer will not be limited only to the network created by one operator. "Now Anilinker has indeed started cooperation with Elma already. Thus companies who are working with that operator are directly connected to the common network with Anilinker", says Koistinen. Wärtsilä and VM-Group took Anilinker's services to production more than a year ago. Besides VM-Group there are already some ten other suppliers in Wärtsilä's network. By the end of the year Wärtsilä aims at spreading the network to 50 new suppliers, who would be using Anilinker's browser based solution. At the moment electronic data transfer between Wärtsilä and its suppliers is related to order, delivery and invoicing data. The goal was, that by the end of the year 2001 already 70 percent of all that data at Vaasa Factory would be transferred electronically. Due to the fast building of the network the percentage was 50 already in the early autumn, and by the end of the year 70 percent goal will be reached and even surpassed, according to Kuurila. Currently Wärtsilä is using ANI services to develop a solution also for electronic transfer of PDF and CAD pictures to its suppliers. VM-Group on its behalf is going to spread ANI network among its own suppliers, with whom it still has handled things manually. Flexible and fast cooperation "It is the only way to grasp the real problems and develop our activities to the direction we want. We have been able to automate profitably our order and invoicing process, because now we have only one interface and messages are coming in and going out in the same format." Thanks to the solution the amount of mistakes in the process has diminished into minimum. And as far as mistakes still occur, they are easily uncovered and corrective actions can be aimed at right things. The whole production process is more streamlined, more on time and more prompt than before. Even the changes to orders are now transferred automatically to all necessary suppliers. Nobody will be left without notice, for example, if a delivery time will be postponed by two weeks. For VM-Group the most important result from the electronic data transfer has been, according to Koistinen, that Wärtsilä's order data comes quickly and without mistakes directly to VM-Group's internal systems. "We are able to give considerably better service than before and to react faster to the changes in customer's process. We are able to do the works in proper succession, which results in smaller stocks, less hassle and less management-by-shouting. And as things are done in a more sensible way, you always save money, too", he says. | ||