In the middle of 2017 Steinbeis Papier GmbH (https://www.stp.de) chose avato consulting ag as a strategic partner for its digitization initiative under the title Industry 4.0 @ Steinbeis Papier. In a short preparation phase the goals were defined, possible application scenarios evaluated and prioritized for implementation in a roadmap.
The implementation started at the beginning of 2018. The technical platform was set up, more than 25.000 sensors were integrated and the prioritized application scenarios were implemented in several release cycles.
The project led to impressive results for the medium-sized manufacturer of sustainably produced recycled paper. These convinced not only the Steinbeis management, but also the jury of the SAP Quality Awards 2019. The project was initially awarded gold in the Innovation category by SAP Germany in mid-December (https://news.sap.com/germany/2019/12/quality-awards-2019-kundenprojekte/). The jury was particularly impressed by how the joint team of Steinbeis and avato significantly improved production and maintenance processes within a tight time and budget frame through intelligent and innovative use of modern technologies and with a data-driven, agile approach.
UPDATE: At the end of April 2020, the project was now also awarded the Regional SAP Quality Gold Award in the Innovation category. An independent jury selected it as “the best of the best SAP implementation projects” in the Innovation category from all local SAP Quality Award winners from the 15 SAP market units in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA region) in a multi-stage selection process (https://news.sap.com/2020/04/2019-regional-sap-quality-award-winners/).
In the first project phase, the focus was on optimizing production processes and the value chain. In particular, the early automated detection of unusual events and procedures in the production facilities and the production process delivers significant optimizations in yields and quality, but also helps to prevent expensive machine and plant failures.
Currently, the integrated database from production and business management applications with the analysis and machine learning tools are used to implement various application scenarios in materials management, purchasing and controlling.
The solution used at Steinbeis is based on the avato Smart Data Framework. The SAP HANA in-memory database is used to collect the data from the various production and quality systems and to analyze it in conjunction with information from the MES and SAP system. Furthermore, various modern machine learning algorithms and IT tools are used to quickly and cost-efficiently process the large amounts of data into practically usable information.
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