The Challenge
As a major manufacturing entity, the company habitually invested an annual average of €34 million in manufacturing equipment and an additional €3 million in automation equipment, covering maintenance and updates. A persistent challenge lay in the extended time it took for solution providers to respond to update requests and implement improved features — a process consuming 3 to 6 months.
This not only added to costs but also placed additional burdens on shopfloor engineers, OT and IT teams, and project managers, incurring an estimated €35,000 in expenses. The primary hurdle was to establish a process for designing an open, technology-based architecture that was solution provider agnostic.
The Solution
Our involvement aimed to explore alternatives for the client's procurement process, steering clear of vendor lock-in over the long term. Collaborating with the client's digital transformation team for just two weeks, we devised a simple framework based on our standard approach, facilitating the creation of the Business Technology Requirements Document (BTRD).
This document, aligned with the company's digital strategy, encompassed an analysis of the process, an overview of available technologies, architectural design, and technical requirements. With this groundwork, subsequent steps, including solution definition and procurement, were completed in under two weeks, a significant reduction from the previous 6 to 8 weeks.
Importantly, the BTRD maintained a vendor-agnostic perspective, allowing the client the flexibility to search for the most efficient solution available on the market. Internal teams were subsequently assigned for implementation.
The Benefits
The client recognized several advantages from our solution:
- A well-defined and easily executable process
- Engagement of a multifunctional team, fostering collaboration
- High-quality paper reflecting the quality of the process
- Acquisition of new knowledge and insights
- Time savings for the involved employees
The Results
- The process was completed in 3 to 4 times less time compared to the previous average
- 95% of the expected features were included, up from 70% previously
- Implementation of an open-source/architecture solution resulted in €700,000 savings in the first year
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3x - 4x
The process took less time then it took in the past on average
-
95%
Of the expected features included, compared to 70% in the past
-
700.000 €
Open source / architecture solution saved in the first year
