The company Tatra Metalurgie a.s., which was formed by the merger of two companies of the Tatra holding, operates as a forge and foundry. It is engaged in the production of castings and forgings, mainly for the Tatra Holding Group, but increasingly also for other customers from the segment of construction and agricultural machinery, automotive (here e.g. for manufacturers of gearboxes, brake drums, etc.) and other engineering production. During the last period, Tatra Metalurgie’s production has thus shifted from mass production to serial to custom production, and now the company handles demand from small to large batches. The product range includes a wide range of metal materials, basically all ferrous metals, grey and ductile steel, and aluminium.
After the merger, a single company was created that used several information systems inherited from the original entities. For example, while the forge used an Oracle ERP system, the foundry had an ERP system developed in-house; moreover, both systems were outdated. The new ERP system deployment project was driven both by the need to unify operations within one company and the need to upgrade existing IT support and cover areas that were not previously supported – typically barcodes, advanced planning, etc.
Therefore, the process of selecting a new information system was initiated to unify the information support of the newly established enterprises. Zdeněk Špelina from the consulting firm AppliCon IT was invited to participate in the tender process and worked on the preparation of the entire procedure, approaching IT suppliers, tender documentation, presentations and evaluation, and with the contract documentation. After considering all factors, the company ultimately chose the QAD system supplied by Minerva.
Afterwards, Zdeněk Špelina assisted Tatra Metalurgie in the implementation itself, where he was a member of the project’s steering committee. Here he provided recommendations in the organizational aspect and in negotiations with suppliers and negotiations on individual deliveries. The system was launched at the beginning of 2018 and now works for 180 users and covers the areas of finance, purchasing, sales, planning, production, CRM module, QMS module and advanced planning module. The ERP system was subsequently supplemented with a BI module and a PLM system from other vendors.
For ERP system deployment projects, AppliCon IT uses its proprietary MAPIC methodology, which generally focuses on three areas: ERP system implementation, process analysis, and process optimization of selected processes. The stages of cooperation with the customer on the project include project preparation (including defining the team, goals, schedule, process map, etc.), system selection (RFI, RFQ), contracting model (including implementation, licensing, maintenance, and purchase agreements), and actual implementation.
The actual implementation project contains the following four blueprints:
One of the consultant’s main contributions was to assist in the preparation of the terms of reference, the definition of the consultation process with suppliers and the negotiation of the final contracts. He provided invaluable assistance in passing on experience with individual systems and detailed knowledge from past practical deployments. This was both in terms of the functionality of individual systems and experience of the work of individual contractors.
Zdeněk Špelina’s role was important especially in light of the complexity of the project, which was actually the first of this scale for the newly established company and needed someone with previous similar experience. The presence of an experienced consultant meant that the company saved considerable time and money needed to successfully complete the entire project without unnecessary extra costs.
“For us as IT staff, the presence of Mr. Špelina’s consultant was particularly important in that without the experience from dozens of projects we would not have been able to effectively face the challenges of such a complex project, which would inevitably lead to its prolongation and increasing costs. We must appreciate his help especially in drafting the tender documentation and then also in negotiating the final terms, which saved us a number of disputable situations with the contractor.”
Martin Hlásenský, vedoucí IT, TATRA METALURGIE a.s.
