The Kverneland Group has nine plants worldwide that produce agricultural machinery – from seed drills to balers. Almost all plants use SAP to process their orders, from purchasing to production and dispatch. The SAP systems are managed group-wide by a centralized IT system. However, each plant has its configuration. Sowing machines are produced at the Soest plant. The processes in this plant are to be optimized by adapting group standards and, if necessary, defining new group standards.
The optimization of the existing SAP is intended to increase potential by adapting solutions from other plants where possible. The challenge lies in recognizing existing solutions in different plants and adapting them. A process-oriented approach should break through modular and divisional thinking. The processes are to become the basis for communication between those involved at the Soest plant and with other plants. In the future, all plants should be able to communicate their best practices via processes and new standards should be adapted more quickly in all plants.
Development of the process map
A 14-month project with a full-time project manager and part-time project staff from the individual areas had already been decided. First, however, the process map and the first organizational level were drawn up with the management team at the Soest plant. This served as the basis for the project team. The project team received further training in the basics of process management, process modeling, and methods for operational process improvements.
A total of 67 target processes were described and introduced at a working level, 139 specific measures were implemented, and 86 SAP work packages were put together. Contrary to the original focus, many changes affected the organization more than the SAP system optimization, and therefore non-SAP processes also became an official part of the project. During the transition of the project to the regular organization, new role models were created to further drive the dynamics of change created in the project with the help of the BPM approach. An adaptation of this approach for other plants is planned.
Our added value for Kverneland
BPM&O supported the project team along the way with further training on process management and individual support for project members during the first concrete process improvements. Standards were established for the development of processes, the implementation of optimization workshops, and the introduction of process changes. Further standards were introduced around the phases of operational process management as tools for the project team, including standardized process approval documents.
Our involvement was rounded off by the coaching of the project manager and the development of a role concept suitable for Soest that can continue the positive changes of the project. ‘The operational drive at the plant was channeled into concrete paths by the process management methods and has brought about changes that the plant had not achieved in the previous ten years,’ sums up Dr Alexander Lübbe from BPM&O GmbH.
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