Success thanks to custom-made ERP software:
Lufthansa subsidiary company relies on abas Business Software

Lufthansa LEOS
Download user report (pdf, 107 KB)

Superlative ground support

It is always impressive to look at the dimensions of a modern aerial port. 62,000 people for example work in Frankfurt on the Main to guarantee smooth air traffic. As a gateway to the world it is available to about 50 Million passengers a year. 1.61 Million tons of goods are moved and make Frankfurt the number 1 in terms of volume of cargo. Lufthansa LEOS, located at Frankfurt Airport, considerably contributes to running airport operations more smoothly. LEOS – Lufthansa Engineering and Operational Services GmbH – is a name which masks concentrated competence regarding ground and engineering services in the Lufthansa Technik Gruppe. In addition to crew transport and vehicle trailing, the 350-employee company LEOS offers engineering services and ground support equipment (GSE), as well as the development and provision of flight maintenance equipment. The company from Frankfurt is also represented in Munich and Düsseldorf, services are also provided in Hamburg via subsidiary companies. Customers can not only be found in the Lufthansa corporate group: Aeroflot Russian Airlines, Airbus Industrie, Ameco Beijing, LTU or Singapore Airlines, as well as Sudan Airways or Egypt Air are among the customers.

Individual software reaches its limits

After the successful outsourcing from the Lufthansa-Technik AG in 1995, LEOS had been working with programs that were individually created in Excel or Word. There was no continuous flow of data. The temporarily implemented business software project, which was in fact planned for handicraft businesses, did not have the flexibility and the potential to be adapted to the continuously changing requirements. Dipl.-Ing. Dipl.-Betrw Stefanie Grimm, ERP representative at LEOS: "The employees had saved their quotations on their PCs. If something was changed in the quotation, it took a long time to pass on the respective information. Doing everything twice was the order of business and the controlling effort was very high. A lot of things depended on the knowledge of individual employees. If one employee was on holiday or ill, the necessary knowledge for a sales order or customer often had to be procured in a time-consuming manner." To optimize business organization and to increase the efficiency of everyday work life, LEOS decided to look for a suitable standard software in the summer of 2000. Grimm continues: "The corporate group gave us plenty of rope when we were selecting the software. The solution had to be flexible, easy to use, standardized and affordable."

Software selection process

When choosing a software, LEOS trusted a proven mix of information procurement. On Systems 2000 they were reading up on the ERP solutions of various providers. "abas ERP already impressed us at the first contact. At the abas stand it was thus already possible to adjust the product master files to our complex requirements," says Stefanie Grimm and continues: "10 providers remained after the trade fair and were asked to send documents about their software solution. After reviewing, Veritas, Microsoft Business Solutions, then kown as Navision, and ABAS were invited to do presentations. They were evaluated by means of a matrix created by us regarding functionality, costs, concepts for the software implementation and development potential."

Reference users were visited and asked about their experiences with the daily use of the software. As LEOS will work with the system for some years, the system provider also played an important role in the selection process. Is the product continuously developed and can this be guaranteed by the provider due to a solid economic basis? LEOS tried to obtain detailed information. In the end there was an obvious winner: the abas Business Software was able to score in every area due to an excellent presentation of the executing abas partner, the ABAS Projektierung Rhein-Main GmbH & Co. KG, located in Langen.

Stefanie Grimm: "We wanted a software that we could adjust ourselves. This is possible with ABAS after we participated in a training session. If someone asks me now whether abas ERP is able to do this or that, I say yes.

Adjustments can generally be carried out quickly using the flexible interface programming (FOP). With ABAS everything was just perfect. The flexibility of the software, the continuous development, the competence and proximity of the abas partner, the statements of the abas reference users and the economic stability of the system provider."

Real start in 6 months

The implementation of the abas Business Software was a little more difficult at the beginning than expected, as LEOS employees’ resentment had to be cleared. Stefanie Grimm: "The previously used individual solution had worked 'somehow'. The employees were working on their own account and still they were familiar with the system. Everything new of course encounters resistance at the beginning." And "The special ABAS software implementation method helped the employees a lot to accept abas ERP. The first key user training sessions took place in November 2001. We placed our focus on the flexible interface programming using which we can carry out adjustments ourselves, the standard system and the product master files. Moreover, the key user team discussed the goals and application areas of abas ERP. There was also homework to do after the training courses. The key users were practicing the functionality of the standard system on a demo system that was installed at LEOS and then specified the need for changes.

Grimm continues: "Due to the implementation that was close to the standard we were able to smooth out and optimize many business processes." The necessary individual adjustments were carried out by the LEOS project manager together with the employees of the abas partner in their office in Langen. The real start took place after only 6 months on May 1, 2002. "On April 30, we were transferring the data until midnight and then just pressed the button. Everything worked fine, there were the 'usual' problems that occur when introducing a new IT system, but they could be handled directly at LEOS," remembers Stefanie Grimm. "The cost limit was maintained due to the quality and cost checks that were interposed during the implementation. In every phase of the project we were control," continues the ERP representative.

Professionality and increase in productivity

Everything that had been defined as a goal in the implementation concept is now actually realized at LEOS. Thanks to the flexibility of the software it was also possible to take changes of the concept into account. Stefanie Grimm: "Thanks to the new continuous workflow, the process from the creation of a quotation to the release of the order is now considerably faster. The continuity and transparency of the data has a noticeable time-saving effect in pruchasing, sales, third-party business and the administration of product, customer and supplier data. In the tools area we were for example able to realize a 30% increase in incoming orders while the manning level in administration, sales and production remained the same. Our penetrating transparency, customer satisfaction and delivery reliability has also improved. Each employees in the engineering area knows now, where a sales process can be found, what the purchasing status is and when the tool can be delivered. When a quotation was created earlier, a lot of time was spent on assembling the products, prices, requirements of the German Aviation Federation, etc. Instead of 5 different processes we now only have one."

Overall, improvements can be seen in all departments. Purchasing is now able to access one standard system in the product master files. Now, it can be answered at any time what already has been calculated but not yet delivered. The control functions for financial statements, inventories and not completed processes has improved. Stefanie Grimm summarizes the state of LEOS since the implementation of the abas Business Software as follows: "Our professionality and productivity has increased in all areas."

Constant further development guaranteed

"We can't imagine our company without abas ERP anymore", says Stefanie Grimm with a smile, "the colleagues even make suggestions on how to improve this or that. We have already implemented many things and are currently working on others. The abas Business Software is being continuously developed. The security of investment is guaranteed. Every release provides us with new functionalities, but we are able to carry over our company-specific adjustment." And thus Stefanie Grimm looks into a bright future: "With abas ERP we have a systems that adapts to our continuously changing requirements."