Our client ERIKS Nederland is a specialized industrial service provider in the fields of seals and rubber technology, industrial plastics, flow technology, industrial and hydraulic hoses, flange gaskets, power transmission and tools, maintenance, and safety products. 40% of products are manufactured or assembled in-house, 60% are commodities.
| Customer | ERIKS Nederland B.V. |
| Segment | Industrial service provider |
Assignment
ERIKS' Botlek facility specializes in the manufacture and distribution of flat gaskets. In recent years, operations from various locations have been concentrated in the Botlek. The transfer from Alkmaar at the end of 2022 is the most recent. In 2023, the transfer from Antwerp port would complete the consolidation.
The introduction of SAP-WM in March 2023 to bring logistics to a higher level was a preparatory step for this.
As a result of these changes, performance of the site had dropped sharply and ERIKS' reputation among its customers had come under pressure. The last straw was that the Operations Manager was leaving the company, and no experienced manager was available at short notice.
Task of the interim manager was:
Approach
The most acute challenge was reducing lead time. After a brief analysis, it turned out that the realized capacity was much higher than the capacity offered in the planning. As a result, all orders were pushed into the further future. By bringing the offered capacity from 60% to 85% of the realized capacity, a shorter lead time was immediately offered to sales. This immediately reduced the number of rush orders. The remaining 15% was reserved for rush orders and, if there were none, for clearing backlogs.
In addition, full efforts were made to run all bottleneck machines to the maximum in order to eliminate the backlog. This involved a focused lean initiative.
Due to the hasty introduction of SAP-WM in combination with the improperly equipped warehouse, inventory reliability had gone down. This had a negative effect on logistics performance. By taking a consistent and methodical approach to getting the warehouse and master data in order, there were fewer misses. The logistics team also became more and more proficient in SAP over time which certainly contributed to the improvement.
In a detailed analysis of historical production data from Belgium and Botlek, an analysis of the required capacity was made, and it was concluded that some machines from Belgium could be better transferred that only a very limited shift shift was needed. This analysis was used for the OR application and implemented.
Prior to the relocation of the Belgian Portfolio, the plant and logistics were prepared to house the machines and racking equipment.
Partly because of the preparation by a multi-functional team, the transition went smoothly and, except for a single incident, without negative effects on the market.
Results
