The company
Duktus Rohrsysteme Wetzlar GmbHis a producer of cast pipework systems, owned by Pipe and Pile International S.A. based in Luxembourg. With more than 500 employees at two manufacturing locations in Austria and Germany, together with sales subsidiaries in Europe and the Middle East, the Pipe and Pile Group develops, manufactures and markets high-quality ductile cast pipes and accessories for the water industry as well as ductile piles for special-purpose subterranean construction. With Group annual sales in the region of 200 million, this company is one of Europes leading players in this field.


Task profile
Centrally, Duktus draws together SAP data from various different Duktus locations in Germany and Austria, as well as Excel reports from the Czech Republic. However, these data do not share a common format. Instead, they come in different structures exhibiting a vast array of dimensions and hierarchies. Due to the costly nature of overcoming discrepancies of this magnitude in SAP, the company found it impossible to compare the data and produce proper, accurate analyses. A solution needed to be identified that would deliver data suitable for evaluation within the Reporting & Planning functions. This would first entail merging all these data streams, then creation of a platform on which extensive analysis and, most especially, accurate planning could be accomplished.


BOARD solution
The Hamburg-based BOARD solutions partner Qurius Advanced Solutions supported Duktus with this project and introduced a central SQL server as well as the BOARD Business Intelligence toolkit. Data from all relevant sites in the home country and abroad are collated in SQL server, and are then uploaded to BOARDs multidimensional database. This process is automated and takes place daily and at every month end, thereby assuring the highest possible level of up-to-the-minute accuracy. These data relate primarily to order book levels, inventories and sales revenues achieved

With the help of a scheduling list, an overview across the order book, manufacturing and sales revenues an overview of the entire Groups position can be obtained.

Once all available data had been pre-processed to the point where direct comparison between them became possible, Duktus decided on a further step and introduced additional hierarchies and dimensions for customer and product data which specifically assistControlling with the task of detailed analysis work. This for example gives rise to clusters of top items. With the help of these, product structures can then be optimised.

Now there are no further obstacles to conducting a comprehensive analysis of the ACTUAL data from SAP. However, another key objective was to incorporate supplementary planning functions within the BOARD system to facilitate active planning of the business across all dimensions and at every conceivable level. Due to the fact that the BOARD system is so easy to use, both for users and developers, the specialist users at Duktus were able to make an early start at producing their own standalone applications without needing to have recourse to support from an external service provider or the IT department.

Based on various forms of account billing logic, a comprehensive monthly sales and production forecasting instrument was created. This gives the company a precise overview of actual and potential orders, which in turn enables it to plan its production operations in a much more dynamic fashion. Planning operations include an extremely diverse range of types of pipe, as well as related auxiliary components. Due attention is also given to details such as the number of pipes, materials, diameters and lengths. Planning work is carried out at national level (regional managers) as well as at the level of individual field service employees or individual product groups within each of the regions. To do justice to the constantly changing market situation, a rolling 3-month forecast was also implemented within the BOARD system, and this serves as a platform for ongoing financial planning.

Product sales, revenues and profits are analysed within the BOARD system on a regional basis, providing ultra-precise insights into the sales successes of the company. Any problematic results can then be examined in much greater depth by the Controller using a simple drill-down process, enabling root causes to be identified.

The Duktus executive management team has a simple dashboard which displays all the companys key performance indicators on a single screen. That means that all the information needed to guide the fortunes of the company is conveniently accessible at all times.

Moreover, the BOARD system features a system for calculating break-even points, currently at the pilot stage. A change to the new BOARD Generation 7 based on .NET technology is already under consideration and has, to a large extent, already been implemented.

The manufacturing plants in Germany and Austria as well as the holding company Pipe & Pile are already among BOARDs population of active developers and users. At the time of writing, the BOARD system is also being implemented in the companys former subsidiary Duktus for a similar range of tasks. Again, corresponding core data hierarchies have been set up for items and customers, enabling flexible analysis work to be applied to sales data from every conceivable angle.


Customer benefits
With the introduction of the new BI system, Duktus has been able to create a uniformly consistent platform for its management data. This has furnished users with no knowledge of either SAP or IT, with the ability to carry out detailed analysis work, quickly and simply. The Board toolkit is so easy and intuitive to use that even departmental staff at the other end of the spectrum from the so-called power users are perfectly capable of carrying out their own ad hoc analyses. Further developments of the system, e.g. for other divisions, are being driven forward rapidly because no external support is needed for this, and because this places no burden on A uniformly consistent planning process, and the possibility of carrying out budget-actual variance analysis work at various levels are the key to reliable, precise and resource-sparing production planning.

BOARD partners
Qurius Advanced Solutions is a specialist IT service provider that delivers management, planning and controlling solutions. The range of services provided by this company comprises business intelligence, data warehousing, systems integration and portals. The companys core skills focus on the following task areas: CPM, controlling, process consultancy, technology expertise and project management. Its customer base includes ABB, Primondo, Tamoil and 3PAGEN.

www.qurius.com