The strong growth of the Andritz Group over the years has added a wide variety of organizational procedures and IT systems.  This creates a challenge for inter-company integration of Business Areas, which is an increasingly important goal.  In 2002, Andritz established a centralized function to focus on these issues and to standardize essential business processes where needed.  This includes the implementation of the business processes within a common IT structure.

Need for a Group Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system

A detailed study within Andritz identified several different and local ERP systems in use.  Most of those systems had been used for a number of years and do not fulfill the long-term requirements of the Andritz Group.  Given the global activities of the Business Areas, the Andritz Group made the decision to change to a global ERP system.

ASAP - Andritz towards global SAP

Following the decision to establish one global ERP system and after choosing the vendor (SAP), a project was established under the name of ASAP (Andritz towards global SAP).  The project was officially started at the end of the First Quarter 2004.

Since then, about 50 team members have been working on the definition and harmonization of the ASAP Business Processes.  The task has been to determine how the essential business processes - from sales and project execution to procurement, manufacturing, service, and finance - will be supported by SAP in the future.

Goals of the new ERP system

The main goal of the new Andritz Global ERP system is to support the business activities as efficiently as existing systems do today, with the added advantage of being able to function globally for all Andritz organizations.  This global system will facilitate Group integration, common global business, integration of new acquisitions, and organizational flexibility.

The Global ERP system will enable global resource sharing, reduction of inventories, pooling of functions (i.e. accounting, purchasing, etc.), automation of inter-company business, and improved financial overview and reporting.  Risks - and therefore costs - for IT system operation are expected to decrease since there will be just one global system to be maintained and updated.

It is anticipated that the global ERP system will result in improved customer service, which will give Andritz a competitive advantage.

Major project steps

After defining the relevant business processes, the ASAP team began implementing them within the SAP system in June 2004.  Approximately 80% of the processes have been finalized in 2004.

At the end of 2004, the new ERP system had its first test - integrating all the related business transactions of an existing customer project, including service orders.  The test was successful.

So as not to disrupt daily business more than absolutely necessary, the ERP system will be established step-wise over a period of six years.  Each location is being staged for implementation based upon when their existing systems would be in need of replacement.  

Beginning March 2005, the ASAP team will focus on Finland where outdated systems will be replaced and SAP will be implemented for about 420 users.  This is the first rollout of the system.  It is planned to begin implementation in China at the end of 2005 and move to North America, where most of the old systems will be replaced in the course of 2006.