Purple innovations for green manufacturing

Coaching & consulting in the project with DAS Environmental Expert GmbH

To ensure that the company-wide redesign of the ERP system and the associated digitalization of process chains is a true success story, transparent and forward-looking multi-stakeholder management is required. In order to identify any show stoppers early on and effectively counteract them, DAS Environmental Expert GmbH engaged LOGSOL‘s project and change management experts.

Key factors for successful digitalization

To make the most of the potential offered by automation, artificial intelligence, big data, and many other smart solutions, processes must be seamlessly supported end-to-end with information technology. It’s also necessary to have the right software to drive this digitalization forward. The linchpin in such digital ecosystems is a powerful enterprise resource planning system that can communicate with all production and back-end systems. But even an implemented ERP system sometimes reaches its limits.
Strong company growth drives the need for business processes to be reviewed and optimized, and life cycle management of the ERP application needs to be realigned. The result is a project of impressive scope and complexity. Stakeholders from all parts of the organization and those of the implementation partner are involved along the process chains.
This means there are naturally very differing perspectives on the sub-processes, as well as diverging demands on the processes and the technical system support.
DAS Environmental Expert GmbH (DAS EE) was faced with such a challenge. The environmental technology company specializes in the disposal of demanding waste gases in high-tech manufacturing and the disposal of industrial and sanitation wastewater. For the fast-growing Dresden-based family business, it is crucial that in-house business processes and digital technology can sustainably keep up with its growing innovative strength and market success.

The fundamental changeover to Microsoft FSC 365 was initiated in 2020. Together with the implementation service provider and LOGSOL GmbH, agile design workshops were held as part of a three-month preliminary project. The target state of the ERP system was outlined on the basis of meaningful user stories, which resulted in a rough cost calculation for implementation.
“This is a very modern approach that only a few companies have attempted to date”, says Dr. David Wustmann, logistics software division manager and digitalization specialist at LOGSOL, who was brought in as a consulting system architect and coach. “There are some risks involved because I commit to the provider from the very beginning and let their view shape my solution. Also, I don’t know the budget until the project is underway. Nevertheless, this approach also offers huge advantages for the project itself and its content – in terms of time and, above all, expertise. Right from the start, process experts help design future-proof processes instead of simply digitalizing existing ones.”

Multi-stakeholder management – ensuring mutual success

The basis for efficient collaboration is a central understanding of the concepts. Especially at the beginning of the project, there were frequent misunderstandings and conflicting perceptions of processes. “It became my job to mitigate that friction and address a few technical challenges that typically arise in an ERP project”, says Dr. David Wustmann. Another typical phenomenon in change projects is the shifting of workload and responsibilities from one area to another in the course of process analysis. This can lead to internal problems if, for example, those involved at the beginning of the process chain have to enter more data into the system, which they don’t actually use themselves. This looks like more work, but their colleagues farther down the process chain benefit from it. Dr. David Wustmann knows that, in both cases, the company can benefit from external “moderation”. “It’s always easier when someone from outside voices a criticism or underscores the critical nature of a topic. At the same time, I can provide some technical support to the DAS project team if necessary and mediate between DAS EE and the ERP provider.” The collaboration also results in organizational changes. In this way, the project structure was adjusted, the roles of ERP Project Management (controlling and financial accounting expertise) and Project Owner (head of global IT) were filled, and a core team was formed comprising managers from all departments. This is an important milestone in the redesign and seamless digital mapping of the entire workflow, from sales and distribution to plant delivery and commissioning. “David Wustmann is supporting us on this project in a role we’ve never filled internally before. He is a kind of consulting system architect on the DAS side, and mediator, also vis-à-vis the ERP system supplier Comso Consult GmbH. We don’t see him as a classic service provider, but rather as one of us, part of our team”, says Mathias Claus, DAS EE Project Owner.

Change management for environmental experts

To schedule such an ERP project in parallel with the growing day-to-day business, buy-in from all stakeholders is necessary. It requires stringent project management, a clear focus on benefits, and flexibility to adapt to day-to-day changes. Only then can the company’s internal project be given priority over customer concerns when necessary. A very high level of motivation and personal responsibility within the team was created by the fact that DAS employees were able to apply voluntarily for this project as future key users.
“Together with David Wustmann, we succeeded in taking our entire project team and our more than 20 internal key users with us along the agile path we had chosen”, says Mathias Claus, Project Owner at DAS EE. “Everyone is learning. Good inter-departmental cooperation and the personal responsibility of individuals in their specialist area are essential factors for successful progress in the project. And the fact that so many people are involved in this project has allowed this new approach to really take hold in the company.” Sven Vogler, DAS EE Project Manager, adds: “For future change projects, too, LOGSOL is a partner whose expertise we don’t want to do without.” They both feel that current progress is exceptional, considering their skepticism only three years ago of the idea of completely agile ERP implementation. This also has a positive impact in other areas. Since the beginning of 2022, the role of “consulting system architect” has also been assigned in the “Dresden site expansion” project. This is another project that has been supported by LOGSOL since 2018. It was launched to plan the logistical processes for the new production hall and warehouse. Construction is now complete and the infrastructure is in place. The warehouse management system (WMS) is scheduled to go live, together with the ERP system – and of course with LOGSOL and Dr. David Wustmann – in early 2023.