DocuWare > Case Studies > Georg Fischer DEKA: System that Meets Highest Demands

Georg Fischer DEKA: System that Meets Highest Demands

Customer Company Size

SME

Region

Europe

Country

Germany

Product

DocuWare
MFG/PRO
Tobit
Ascent Capture

Tech Stack

Document Management System
ERP System
Communication Software
Form Recognition Software

Implementation Scale

Enterprise-wide Deployment

Impact Metrics

Productivity Improvements
Customer Satisfaction
Cost Savings

Technology Category

Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Data Exchange & Integration
Analytics & Modeling - Process Analytics

Applicable Industries

Aerospace
Automotive
Chemicals

Applicable Functions

Discrete Manufacturing
Quality Assurance
Sales & Marketing

Use Cases

Manufacturing System Automation
Supply Chain Visibility

Services

System Integration
Software Design & Engineering Services

About The Customer

Georg Fischer DEKA GmbH is a pipe system specialist based in Dautphetal, Germany. The company is known for its custom manufacturing to meet the special needs of different industries. Customers from around the world depend on the modern plastic piping systems generated by Georg Fischer DEKA. The company's competitive advantages include its emphasis on top quality and creating very custom products. For example, this plastics manufacturer provides a pipe system for cabin air ventilation on the Airbus 340 and 380. A quick turnaround of products is a key criteria: replacement parts must be delivered within 24 hours. The company has a warehouse filled with more than 500 different pipe dimensions that are all made from a variety of materials, mass-produced or custom-made. The company has a staff of 112 employees.

The Challenge

Georg Fischer DEKA GmbH, a pipe system specialist, was facing a challenge due to the extensive production data they had to archive. The laws surrounding product liability required that all manufacturing documentation is securely retained for more than 50 years. The company was looking for an alternative to archiving with paper due to the increasing storage space requirements. Additionally, the company saw this as an opportunity to re-think and reorganize the way their company communicates. In the past, each work group as well as each individual staffer had their own filing system. Records were manually organized, copied and filed in binders. Then after each year, the documents would be placed in a central storage space, which only an authorized employee could access. The search for any older records was rather difficult and took a lot of time. Any exchange of documents between departments was often problematic and even more time-consuming. Customer inquiries could not be handled quickly, since documents had to be moved within the building via “tube mail.“

The Solution

The company’s leadership decided to create an electronic archive with the help of DocuWare’s sales partner, DMS Vertriebs GmbH. Employees in Order Processing tested the fully automatic filing system for records handled by their ERP system, MFG/PRO from QAD. Within two weeks, the document management system (DMS) was working flawlessly. Today, all of the company’s departments are using the central document pool: Sales, Production, Quality Control, Accounting, Maintenance, Shipping and the Warehouse. Every day about 200 processes – that involve up to 600 sheets of paper – are archived. Various records generated by the ERP system, such as order forms, shipping documents, accounts receivable invoices used to be printed out, photocopied, hole-punched and placed in binders. Now the process happens fully automatically, and all these documents are indexed, using built-in customer numbers and names, organized and safely stored. Any authorized personnel can then access these same documents with a click of a mouse. Invoices can still be printed and sent by mail to a customer. Records from the central document pool can also be printed into an electronic basket and then sent by fax or e-mail using the communication software Tobit.

Operational Impact

The central archive is especially enjoyed by the Production Department’s staffers. Various parameters that occur during production are collected and documented as Production Papers – this might include measurements, handwritten notes, drawings or documents that were generated with MFG/ PRO. As soon as the production of a certain type of pipe is completed, these papers are now labeled with a barcode. This is where the capturing software Ascent Capture by Kofax comes in, which adds onto DocuWare additional features for form recognition. It enables them to handle a variety of forms and handwritten notes, to recognize as well as evaluate them. The results and any other relevant materials are archived fully automatically in the central document pool due to the integration of Ascent Capture and DocuWare. Now they are available with a few clicks of a mouse.
Quality Control can also access some of this data and use the information they gather for their tasks. In this way, the move to electronic filing has significantly improved the communication between departments.
The customer is noticing the difference as well. Because of document management, the staff has demonstrated more competence: fast and accurate information about the latest status of a project is certainly well received by customers, not just the quick sending of invoices or delivery slips. This kind of help can easily be provided electronically, sometimes even arriving by e-mail on a client’s PC while they are still on the phone.

Quantitative Benefit

The company invested 70,000 Mark at that time into its DMS project – a sum that was amortized in two years.
Every day about 200 processes – that involve up to 600 sheets of paper – are archived.