Four is the magic number 

Following a massive expansion – 50 percent more deliveries just in the past year – it became increasingly difficult for the transportation technology company Škoda Group to collaborate with its 14 current subsidiaries and its fragmented supply chain network. In order to be more than the sum of its parts in the future, the company decided to pursue the goal of operational and digital excellence. This holistic and integrated transformation process consists of four blocks, which will achieve their full potential when taken together. The goals are: 

• Optimizing process excellence throughout the group 
• Bringing management excellence to a new leadership level 
• Ensuring orientation and stability with a change architecture 
• Using a new IT infrastructure as a technical framework and efficiency driver for the integrated overall group 

According to CEO Didier Pfleger, this integration course is necessary in order to optimally prepare Škoda Group for the next growth steps: “Numerous stand-alone solutions, which have become established at the individual sites over the years, represented a high risk, also in terms of technology. At the same time, we wanted to harmonize cooperation across all manufacturing sites and increase potential efficiency. For this reason, we chose a coordinated approach in which processes, management methods, and IT-systems are simultaneously modernized.” With this approach, Škoda improves procedures and becomes more efficient in all units through the introduction of lean methodology on the process and leadership side. With the digital tools of the new IT-infrastructure, the company fills the processes with life, identifies weak points, and can successfully handle the increasing order volume. 

An analysis of the company-wide IT landscape showed the importance of deeper integration. The experts at Staufen AG identified more than 100 different applications for the order fulfillment process alone. This situation complicated the harmonization between the subsidiaries, which are distributed throughout Europe, and also increased the manual effort for data transfer. In addition, the multitude of different systems led to functional overlaps and redundancies, which tied up a great deal of capacity in the IT department. 

CEO of Škoda Group Pfleger: “The old IT-systems were no longer keeping up with our growth. That is why we had to look for new solutions and approach the challenges of the future from two sides: first from the process side in order to improve processes and become more efficient in all units, and second from the side of digital tools.” In the future, the basic IT framework of the entire group will be formed by just four systems: a CMS by Salesforce, a PLM by Siemens, an ERP by SAP, and IBM Maximo for asset management. “With these tools, we cover around 90 percent of the organization. They form the backbone of the new system, and all processes must be oriented toward this,” Pfleger continues. 

The implementation of this large digitalization project in combination with a complete lean transformation is a feat that must be carefully controlled. “We know that we are asking a lot of our employees by making such sweeping changes within a project framework of just under two years. But this simultaneous approach is rational, because the tools, services, and processes all interact with one another. This will achieve the goal faster, and the result is better than if we were to introduce the innovations over a longer period of time,” CEO of Škoda Group Pfleger is convinced.