Microsoft Dynamics AX by ORDAT at sports car manufacturer Artega

FROM ZERO TO ONE HUNDRED IN ONLY SIX WEEKS: ARTEGA MANUFACTURES ITS NOBLE ROADSTER WITH THE ERP SYSTEM MICROSOFT DYNAMICS AX IMPLEMENTED BY ORDAT.

AT ONE GLANCE:

Industry: automotive sector
Employees: 80
Solution: Microsoft Dynamics™ AX basic license for the automotive industry
Users: 20 concurrent users

THE SPORTS CAR MANUFACTURER

Artega Automobil GmbH & Co. KG, founded at the beginning of 2006 is one of the youngest brands in the automobile industry. With its Artega® GT the company presents an extraordinary sports car which is, at the same time, suitable for everyday life. At its Delbrück/Westfalen location about 80 employees develop and produce this 300 hp lightweight speedster. Sales and distribution is carried out by an own international distributor network. For the series production of the Artega® GT a state-of-the-art manufactory has specially been built. On a production site of 4.000 sq meters up to 500 vehicles are constructed each year.

TRANSPARENT AND FUTURE-PROOF

While the new plant was being built, the company also decided to replace
the IBM AS/400-based ERP system Infor XPPS. The new system should provide a broad range of functionalities in order to be able to map the complex requirements of an automobile developer and manufacturer in a more comfortable way. Follow-up costs for special modifications which frequently accrued due to the former solution should be avoided as far as possible. Moreover, the purpose of introducing a new ERP system was to optimize the quality and efficiency in the different departments and to sustainably increase the transparency of reporting on all levels.
Artega’s superior concern was that the new solution should meet future requirements as well, for example, in view of a global dealer connection with one product configurator. Also, an elaborate service management, a CAD integration and the depiction of special logistics processes in the connection of the supplier were required. ”For us, it was especially important to find a software whose continuity and further development is guaranteed by a solvent software supplier,” Christian Happe, CIO at Artega explains. After a thorough selection procedure which involved many reputable ERP suppliers, the choice finally fell upon the software Microsoft Dynamics™ AX powered by ORDAT.

EXPERIENCED PARTNER FOR MEDIUM-SIZED COMPANIES

For the installation of the new ERP solution the company was looking for an experienced ERP implementation partner. In order to assist Artega in increasing requirements which regard to efficiency and transparancy, the enterprise wanted a partner with a great project experience in medium-sized companies and a profound business process know-how.

Peter Müller, COO at Artega: ”of course, we wanted to have an implementation partner on equal terms who was experienced in medium-sized projects in the automobile industry; someone who was accordingly flexible working in a professional manner.”

The company selected ORDAT. With ORDAT‘s know-how about ERP-based process optimization the constellation complied exactly with the demand on investment security, software quality and an implementation adequate to a medium-sized company.

PRODUCTIVE START IN SIX WEEKS

Artega set a really tight timeframe for the implementation. ”With a replacement time of 50 calendar days we surely had defined a sportive goal,” said Markus Schäfer, managing director of ORDAT. ”But, for a car manufacturer who only need 4.8 seconds from zero to one hundred, neither you as implementation partner should lose time and you should know when to do what.”

UNPROBLEMATIC INDIVIDUALIZATION

Also for the purchase order processing and the incoming stock ORDAT made minor adjustements. The layer technology and modern object-oriented architecture of Microsoft Dynamics™ AX enabled a fast and problem-free individualization. ”The fact that ORDAT as well as Artega have the access to the sources for individual adjustments and that Artega also has the license for the Dynamics AX Sourcecode, gives us room for any future possibilities”, Christian Happe cheers.

Soon, this solution proved decidedly useful: within the frame of the project, an innovative logistics concept was realized and the complete purchase logistics was assigned to an external logistics provider. In doing so, some very special new processes had to be established which, however, could be mapped without any problems. Scanning empty containers in the area of the assembly warehouse, a corresponding requirement is signaled automatically to the logistics provider who immediately delivers the required parts to the production. In order to make these functions possible, ORDAT also developed new scanner programs and integrated the provider as an own location into the Artega system environment.

PROSPECT:

Microsoft Dynamics™ AX offers an exceptionally broad coverage of all demands of an automobile manufacturer. From this reason the CRM system and the CADIntegration will be implemented at Artega in further steps. Also, the electronic communication with business partners, e. g., the EDI connection of vendors or distributors through a dealer portal, shall continue to expand in the future.