d&b audiotechnik GmbH & Co. KG is a supplier of audio systems for professional use. d&b audiotechnik provides high-quality audio equipment “Made in Germany” for a wide range of major events, including festivals, sports arenas, event halls, and opera houses. More than 500 employees develop and manufacture its products, primarily in Backnang, near Stuttgart. The company sells its products through international subsidiaries in places such as Europe, the United States, China, Japan, and Singapore.
The project at a glance
- Development of a web interface for order planning with direct connection to all relevant systems in an agile cooperation with the customer
- A significant reduction in communication effort between departments by 86%
- Optimized order and delivery planning and reduced effort for order changes thanks to a newly developed algorithm
- Inclusion of expertise from the customer's employees and integration into an automatic optimization tool
Initial situation
As a supplier of professional audio equipment, d&b audiotechnik faces the challenge of delivering orders as optimally as possible. Unless the customer specifies otherwise, orders should preferably be delivered in full on the same date and as early as possible. Besides seamless logistics, optimum warehouse management must also be ensured. The aim is to minimize the number of items in the warehouse waiting for delivery, and the customer who orders first should also be the first to receive their delivery. This places high demands on internal communication. Since these goals could previously only be implemented with a great deal of manual effort, d&b audiotechnik turned to codecentric AG to automate these tasks.
Solution
To solve the problem, codecentric worked closely with the customer's employees to develop an algorithm that automatically schedules orders and requests. When designing the algorithm, great attention was paid to taking into account the experience of the d&b audiotechnik specialist department with the previous process.
The algorithm basically determines for each order whether it can be brought forward to an earlier date without impacting the deadlines of other orders, based on the latest data from production planning and stock levels. At the same time, it provides the basis for demand-oriented control of production in the short-term. To this end, it makes suggestions for changes to production planning that will result in better delivery times. In doing so, it also takes into account the special features of d&b audiotechnik's product range, such as the rapid interchangeability of production orders within certain product groups, as well as other constraints.
A web interface displaying the results of the optimization was created to allow users to work productively with this data. Various views and formats are offered tailored to the different tasks of the specialist departments. For example, a sales representative can directly view a non-binding delivery date for a potential new order.
It was important to keep development agile, as this is a major change in internal processes. Short feedback loops in direct contact with the customer's specialist department allowed assumptions to be quickly checked, unconsidered requirements to be added, and weaknesses that emerged in practical operation to be remedied.
Result
The result is a web interface on d&b audiotechnik's intranet that is directly connected to the existing data warehouse and can be operated by the specialist departments. The algorithm developed by codecentric automatically generates proposals for rescheduling orders in the event of changes to the order, stock levels, or production planning. This enables the specialist department to plan assignments better with little effort.
In addition to the specialist departments, international sales also benefit from the new solution. The application now provides them with a tool that allows them to quickly and easily request non-binding delivery times. Automated data processing and delivery dramatically reduced the communication effort between departments – an important metric of d&b audio technology shows an 86% reduction in effort.
Verena Burger
Head of Sales & Partner Enablement, d&b audiotechnik GmbH & Co. KG
The collaboration with codecentric proved extremely successful. The idea was implemented with the highest standards of quality and professionalism, and further development was proactively driven forward with excellent solutions. The results of codecentric's work, in particular that of Hendrik, have increased our company's competitiveness and raised our internal service quality to a new level. We already have new projects about to kick off with codecentric and I'm looking forward to seeing the first work results. Thanks codecentric!
Verena Burger
Head of Sales & Partner Enablement, d&b audiotechnik GmbH & Co. KG
Any questions about the project?
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Further projects of codecentric AG
Find out about other successful projects that we have completed with our customers. Perhaps you will find inspiration for a use case in your company here.
Hendrik Schawe