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Seizing market share by responding faster and more cost-effectively to customer demands
Technology Category
- Functional Applications - Enterprise Resource Planning Systems (ERP)
- Functional Applications - Fleet Management Systems (FMS)
- Functional Applications - Warehouse Management Systems (WMS)
- Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - Cloud Computing
- Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - Cloud Storage Services
Applicable Functions
- Discrete Manufacturing
- Logistics & Transportation
- Procurement
Use Cases
- Fleet Management
- Inventory Management
- Manufacturing System Automation
- Predictive Maintenance
- Supply Chain Visibility
Services
- Cloud Planning, Design & Implementation Services
- Data Science Services
- System Integration
The Challenge
Friedhelm Loh Group, a leading engineering company, was looking for ways to optimize its operations to deliver products to customers faster and at a lower cost than its competitors. The company was facing rising IT complexity and costs due to its growing business and the need to integrate new acquisitions onto its central IT system. It also wanted to boost system availability, as even short periods of downtime would cause backlogs in its warehouses and delay manufacturing and customer deliveries, tarnishing the company’s excellent reputation. The company also wanted to deliver even the most complex orders on time and cost-effectively.
About The Customer
Headquartered in Haiger, Germany, Friedhelm Loh Group is a leading engineering company. The company operates 78 subsidiaries and employs 11,500 people worldwide, and generates annual revenues of approximately EUR 2.2 billion. The company specializes in manufacturing electrical enclosures that house expensive and sensitive equipment, which must be protected against threats such as vandalism, heat or accidental damage. To help companies safeguard their valuable assets from increasingly intricate threats, Friedhelm Loh Group aims to deliver all-encompassing solutions. To obtain the additional resources and know-how needed to manufacture these sophisticated offerings, Friedhelm Loh Group routinely acquires companies that specialize in the necessary components and related services.
The Solution
Friedhelm Loh Group standardized on a comprehensive suite of SAP ERP applications, which support optimization and automation in everything from human resources to production planning. To provide a robust foundation for running SAP applications, Friedhelm Loh Group decided to upgrade the underlying IT infrastructure. It deployed two IBM Power System E880 servers, running the IBM i operating system, the integrated IBM DB2 for i database and IBM PowerVM for i. To maximize uptime and performance for SAP applications and data, the company operates its SAP landscape in a highly efficient two-tier architecture. The company now operates a reliable, highly integrated and super-scalable IT landscape which can seamlessly scale to support growing operations, user numbers and product types.
Operational Impact
Quantitative Benefit
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