Innovation Meets Tradition
The world’s largest printing press factory is located in Wiesloch-Walldorf, not far from the city of Heidelberg. Here, approximately 4,500 employees develop, manufacture, and sell the industry’s most advanced printing presses and systems—for the customers of Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG (HEIDELBERG), the global market leader in offset printing.
The company was founded in 1850. With a total of approximately 9,300 employees worldwide, it most recently generated annual revenue of just under 2.3 billion euros. Just in time for its 175th anniversary, HEIDELBERG is currently giving its process landscape a major overhaul, which affects not only its headquarters in Wiesloch-Walldorf but also all other locations in Germany, Switzerland, and China. The goal is to standardize these operations—globally. That’s why HEIDELBERG began collaborating with io.
“Bassline” to Get into the Groove
“It was an approach that holistically re-examined the existing IT landscape in order to design the system and process environment at all levels to be as lean, efficient, and standardized as possible,” explains Maike Weingärtner, Senior Consultant for EWM at io. “Through joint consultation, we developed a program and a roadmap for the company-wide implementation of SAP EWM, with the goal of centralizing a large portion of the warehouses through the system.” A measure like this affects more than just IT. It requires comprehensive cooperation and support—in every area, at every level. “For projects of this magnitude, it is absolutely essential that all stakeholders get on the same page. That’s why, first and foremost, we need a foundation to guide us. A reliable foundation is essential for building the necessary trust as an implementation partner.” To this end, a manual warehouse—“Hall 11”—at the Wiesloch-Walldorf site was initially selected as a pilot.
The warehouse's process overhaul formed the cornerstone of the collaboration between HEIDELBERG and io.
Step by Step Instead of a Big Bang
The team led by Weingärtner and Hock then turned their attention to the Amstetten site near Ulm, in accordance with the planned roadmap. The foundry there, which produces the cylinders and side walls for the printing presses, had a proprietary warehouse management system. “The goal there is standardization and, as a result, improved maintainability,” Hock continues. “To avoid a ‘Big Bang,’ we opted for a phased implementation. First, the automated high-bay warehouse with adjacent conveyor systems for storing raw parts was replaced. Currently, the implementation of the cylinder production process—including the interface to SAP DM—is being finalized. The final step will be the implementation of sidewall production.”
Based on a cross-site analysis of the processes, the io experts designed a template that now serves as a blueprint for all other production warehouses. The template was designed not only to be used during project implementation but also to standardize the accompanying processes—both in project management and in documentation. It includes custom SAP programming, as Weingärtner and Hock report—for example, for the putaway and clearance area dialogs as well as material flow control. In addition, they have already defined the integration with SAP Digital Manufacturing (SAP DM), so that production processes can be monitored, controlled, and optimized in real time in the future as part of further implementations—which, given HEIDELBERG’s complex manufacturing processes, requires an extension of the SAP standard in some areas. This is especially true since the company plans to apply its technical expertise to new business areas such as electromobility. So there’s a lot going on at HEIDELBERG—and at io as the SAP EWM implementation partner for the global rollouts.
