abas Business Software adapts to company needs

LISEGA GmbH
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In the years since its founding in 1964, LISEGA GmbH has emerged as an international market leader in the field of pipe supporting equipment. Exclusive specialization in pipe supports has enabled the achievement of outstanding performance and maximum customer satisfaction. The result is a diversified product range that excels through its high quality and ease of use. Over 4000 standardized mounting components are available in a modular system - an innovation in the plant engineering and construction industry.

From newcomer to market leader

The invention of a new type of constant suspension for pipe supports in 1964 initiated the founding of LISEGA GmbH. Today, over 500 employees worldwide produce all the components required to support pipes. LISEGA mountings are designed for use in complex pipe supporting systems in power plants, the chemical industry and heavy industry. They are particularly suitable for the zero-force balancing of pipe extensions measuring up to 900 mm in operating temperatures which reach 600°C, as well as for the earthquake-proof suspension of pipes. LISEGA's emergence as a market leader is largely attributable to its ability to provide a complete modular system, featuring over 4000 standardized supporting components. Standardization enables efficient repetitive production, integrated data processing and optimized stock control. The resulting gains in efficiency ensure leading product quality, short delivery times and competitive prices. LISEGA GmbH now has over 5 subsidiaries in the US, Great Britain, France, Australia and China, as well as a worldwide distribution network with 39 agencies in 36 countries.

System performance

In spite of extensive component standardization, there is almost no such thing as a customer order in the plant engineering and construction industry that does not require individual product specification. For example, spring suspensions (vertically moving components which compensate for height changes in pipes due to thermal expansion) need to be pre-stressed to the specific mounting load and then pre-locked in both directions of movement. Even the support position itself, i.e. the exact mounting location within the construction site has to be specified, along with the settings, on the nameplate. These customer-specific values mean that practically no product leaves the plant without a degree of individual specification.

Planned introduction of IT

Dealing with global requirements demands a streamlined and integrated organisational structure, which is inconceivable without the aid of electronic data processing. For this reason, a computer-aided business module for stock control and order processing was introduced in 1979, followed by a special production planning and control program in 1988. These were individual solutions that were largely developed in-house. With the growth of the company and the increasing globalization of the sales market, the need for a uniform, enterprise-wide data processing solution became apparent.
As a result, 1992 saw the replacement of the existing solutions by abas Business Software (formerly abas-EKS), the integrated ERP / PPC system. "At that time", recounts IT Manager Udo Böttcher, "abas Business Software won a tough battle against some heavyweight competitors. It was crucial to build a program package. With a solid functional core the system allows a multifaceted composition of software user interfaces and the integration of individual applications". This design makes it easy to adapt individual workstations to specific company and departmental requirements. In fact, specialist data processing experience is hardly necessary since the required tools, like report and macro generators, come as standard functions by virtue of their structure and use. abas Business Software was implemented in several stages. First to benefit were the sales, purchasing and incoming goods departments in 1992. The financial accounting module was installed next within a space of two weeks during normal departmental operation. This was followed by the changeover in the production and raw material management department in 1995, and the time management department in 1996. In 1998, the 'FAST/pro' shop floor control system was implemented in the production and directly linked to abas Business Software using online interfaces. The shop floor control system uses these interfaces to obtain the data it needs, and also return information to the ERP system as requested.

Multilingual communication

A major benefit for LISEGA GmbH is the multilingual capability of the abas Business Software. At LISEGA, English is used for its subsidiaries in the US, Great Britain and Australia, and French for the subsidiary in France. Multilingualism offers a number of advantages, for instance: experiences and customized modules, etc. can be shared immediately amongst all subsidiaries. This leads, amongst other things, to considerably shorter implementation periods for new modules and versions.
In Germany, barely six months were needed for system implementation, which included the lead-up work, test runs and training sessions. With the advantage of being the second user within the LISEGA Group, complete implementation only took 6 weeks in the US, followed by five weeks in France.
Communication between centers is via remote data transmission (RDT). For example, if an order is recorded in abas Business Software in the US or France and then sent to Germany, a macro generator in the German system enables the same order to be displayed on screen and edited, completely in German.

Using abas Business Software

As soon as a quotation is produced within the LISEGA Group and sent out, abas Business Software tracks all the subsequent activities relating to this quotation. If the quotation leads to an order, all the necessary key data will already be held by the system, and only changes will need to be recorded additionally. It does not matter which LISEGA subsidiary produces the quotation, nor which one carries out the further processing. The organization of inventories and production sites, which ensures availability at short notice via demand-led material planning and control, is a keystone in the order processing system. This means, for example, that the various storage locations belonging to LISEGA subsidiaries worldwide will be included in material planning operations. The order logistics department, which oversees order processing from the receipt of an order through to its delivery, monitors the observance of quoted delivery periods. Close liaison between the production and operations planning and scheduling departments ensures the optimal observance of deadlines.
A single customer order may comprise a large number of individual production orders. The integration of shipping and despatch in the abas ERP system guarantees that deliveries will be complete, as abas Business Software allows individual production orders to be assigned to various customer orders without a problem. A standardized, permanently-accessible abas database underpins all these activities. Data is supplied and exchanged across a computer link using the global ISDN network.