Our knowledge. Your profit. Thom Metall- und Maschinenbau GmbH ...

EnginEEring
Thom is the one to go to when food processing
companies need machinery – whether
it‘s for processing itself, or for conveying, mixing,
filling, emptying or cleaning. Over the
last 40 years, the family business based in
Verden, Northern Germany, has grown into a
midsized engineering company. The company
lives its motto “We build solutions.” Being
one of the most important suppliers of plants
and special machinery, it offers no standard
products but individual solutions that satisfy
customers around the world. Thom chose
MODUS ENGINEERING to keep its high quality
standards in the future.
In the food processing industry, requirements
are complex and hygienic standards high, making
quality the top issue. Meanwhile, processing
technologies evolve faster and faster. At
Thom, cutting-edge technology, expert project
teams and qualified professionals guarantee
innovative and on-top solutions even if customer
needs change. Besides sound know-how,
decades of experience and constant innovations,
the dedicated company management
adds a great deal to the pie.
“That area proved to be especially challenging,”
Managing Director Walter Ohrnberger
explains. “Because what is now one company
were originally two at different locations.
Our goal was to merge them smoothly and re-
Thom Metall- und Maschinenbau GmbH
Special solutions, top quality
Thom keeps his standards up with
MODUS ENGINEERING
Headquarters of Thom Metall- und Maschinenbau GmbH in Verden,
Nothern Germany.
place old stand-alone software with a single,
integrated system.” Back then, Thom used different
ERP systems to capture processed material
and workshop hours. ERP software to
streamline the ever more complicated business
processes needed to fully capture all
company data and properly map the entire
value chain. “Another feature important to us
was an integrated Management Information
System, delivering key performance indicators
and plan-to-actual comparisons. We wanted
efficient controlling that could take action
at short notice,” Ohrnberger says, listing the
most important requirements.
> Why MODUS ENGINEERING? > After thoroughly
inspecting different solutions together
with outside help, Thom chose specially designed
engineering software MODUS ENGINEE-
RING based on the Microsoft DynamicsTM NAV
platform. MODUS ENGINEERING extends the
functionality of the worldwide proven Microsoft
standard solution to include the specific
requirements of project-oriented enterprises,
be it in calculation, purchase, sales, manufacturing,
assembly or controlling. Closely coordinated
between users and developers, MODUS
Consult tailored its already developed solution
to the exact specifications required by Thom.
This bred ERP software for businesses around
the globe and has already sparked the interest
of many other engineering companies.
Our knowledge. Your profit.
Preventive maintenance at
customer site.
“MODUS Consult is a midsized business just
like us. We talk on the same level, and so we
feel like we‘re in good hands,” Ohrnberger
stresses. By cooperating with Microsoft, the
engineering-to-order company can also count
on long-term and reliable market perspectives.
And, the years-long experience in the
engineering-to-order field provided MODUS
Consult with valuable industry know-how.
In spring 2005, Thom analyzed company workflow
to attune business processes to the software,
and even implement new features like
production planning, while MODUS Consult
trained key users from company management,
purchase, financial management, design,
sales, technology and manufacturing to work
with the new system. “In the first two weeks
MODUS Consult was always there for us when
we needed someone on site to explain how
the system works,” the managing director says,
praising the close cooperation.
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EnginEEring
> Enhanced business processes > Thom
uses MODUS ENGINEERING to cover the following
business areas: financial management,
CRM, distribution, job calculation, Controlling,
goods management, purchase, manufacturing
and time management. More than any other
function, employees use job calculations to
enter current data and time of entry through
bar code readers. Production planning creates
orders from CAD documents and includes bar
codes for time and material. When scanned,
material requirements planning and manufacturing
use those orders to automatically create
job journals that they post directly to the
respective cost objects. The most recent data
is instantly available, double entries prevented.
Plus: The software reacts flexibly to
extending or reducing BOMs while the job is
running. If customers have change requests,
Thom can include them at any time.
With the new found transparency, projects
managers can always keep an eye on the
budget. And, a function in the job controlling
area of the Management Information System
can analyze a job‘s success to take actions if
necessary.
Thom Metall- und Maschinenbau GmbH
Special solutions, top quality
Thom keeps his standards up with
MODUS ENGINEERING
Contents in short
> Real-time application of
MODUS ENGINEERING in the
engineering-to-order industry
> Enhancing business processes
> Handling order and manufacturing
processes
> Many benefits > Integrated ERP soluti-
on MODUS ENGINEERING has a lot to offer the
German company: Single job steps are easy
to track, shipments arrive just in time. Because
the program can calculate the exact time
needed to finish an order, staff can plan new
jobs minute by minute – even larger orders are
nothing to worry about. Comprehensive job
information is key to calculating prices. “MO-
DUS ENGINEERING improved all of our business
processes. We benefited from that: Reduced
turnaround times, fewer mistakes and
more easy-to-track process data,” Ohrnberger
recounts his positive experiences.
“To claim ‚We build solutions‘,
we needed ERP software that could truly
match our needs. We found that in MODUS
ENGINEERING.”
Walter Ohrnberger, Managing Director,
Thom Metall- und Maschinenbau GmbH
MODUS Consult AG
Advantages
> Make production data more easy to track
> Prevent errors
> Reduce turnaround times
> Process larger order volumes
> Count on exact pricing
> Make use of efficient job controlling
> Steps ahead > Successfully imple-
menting the solution at Thom was just the beginning.
The company is already planning its
next steps like implementing a Production
Planning and Control (PPC) system. Production
planning will then include each order in
capacity planning and tracking, automating
even the entry of small jobs. Thom also thinks
about introducing a document management
system that automatically retrieves job-relevant
documents from Microsoft DynamicsTM NAV and SolidWorks and archives job-related
emails at a click.
By choosing MODUS ENGINEERING, Thom covers
both its present and future needs. With
its streamlined and automated business processes,
the engineering-to-order company is
in good shape to face the tough competition
ahead.
James-Watt-Straße 6 · 33334 Gütersloh · Germany
Telephone +49(0)5241 · 9217 10 Fax +49(0)5241 · 9217400
E-Mail contact@modusconsult.de Internet www.modusconsult.de
Alzenau · Erlangen · Stuttgart
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