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DocuWare > Case Studies > Alfred Rexroth: Streamlining Operations with SAP Business One and DocuWare

Alfred Rexroth: Streamlining Operations with SAP Business One and DocuWare

Technology Category

Functional Applications - Enterprise Resource Planning Systems (ERP)

Applicable Functions

Discrete Manufacturing
Quality Assurance

Use Cases

Manufacturing System Automation

Services

System Integration

The Challenge

Alfred Rexroth, a Berlin-based company in the metal industry, had to archive several hundred thousand documents every year. The company faced challenges in retrieving these documents due to the time-consuming search process. They decided to switch their ERP system to SAP Business One and find a new DMS system as updating their previous system would have been too expensive and required costly consultants. The company also faced issues with tracking invoices as they were sent around the company in circular files. The company also had to compile extensive documentation for each product manufactured, which had to be provided to the customer.

About The Customer

Alfred Rexroth is a company with a long tradition in the metal industry. Based in Berlin, the company produces intricate parts for customers from a wide range of industries, but predominantly the medical and manufacturing plant engineering sectors. The documentation requirements are particularly high in this field. The company needs to archive several hundred thousand documents every year. The company operates in various departments including accounting, purchasing, sales, production planning, work preparation, logistics, quality assurance, documentation, manufacturing, and human resources.

The Solution

Alfred Rexroth partnered with their systems house to implement DocuWare in its accounting department and installed a workflow for authorizing incoming invoices. Invoices are either scanned or automatically retrieved from the email inbox, indexed, and archived in a central document pool. A built-in escalation process ensures that no invoice is left unattended. The workflow ends as soon as a document is finally checked back into the accounting department and (if approved) automatically posted and archived. Not only are accounting documents stored in the electronic document pool, but also all documents that are generated in the various departments of the company. Thanks to the interface to the ERP system, everything that needs to be filed is automatically indexed and stored in DocuWare. Paper documents are scanned and archived. Using the convenient full-text search, all authorized persons from across departments can access the documents.

Operational Impact

The system has been particularly helpful for compiling all the extensive documentation that must be provided to a customer for each product manufactured. For this purpose, a workflow has been set up that starts as soon as a delivery slip for a finished product is printed out. As soon as an employee has checked and approved the file assembled by the workflow, it is automatically sent to the customer by email. In this way, the documentation is already on hand at a customer’s when the goods arrive with the delivery slip.
About 80 percent of the work in the documentation department is now automated.
At the end of 2020, after about two years of using DocuWare, around five million documents had already been stored in their archive. Many require very long retention periods - 50 years for turbines, for example – which are easily met.

Quantitative Benefit

80% of the work in the documentation department is now automated.
Around five million documents had already been stored in their archive after about two years of using DocuWare.