news.sap.com Open in urlscan Pro
3.121.83.37  Public Scan

Form analysis
0 forms found in the DOM

Text Content

Skip to content
>
Features


JOWAT CREATES SEAMLESS, JUST-IN-TIME OPERATIONS WITH SAP DIGITAL MANUFACTURING

 * 
 * 
 * 

Feature
by Karin Fent
January 17, 2024

Jowat Group is one of the world’s top adhesive manufacturers for industrial use.
Tradition and experience from 100 years of corporate development and experience
allow it to act as a leading company in technology and innovation in numerous
markets and application areas.

Jowat SE’s annual production amounts to 100,000 tons of industrial adhesives.
Production is complex and requires high volumes of specialized chemicals and a
tremendous amount of power. With raw materials and energy costs skyrocketing,
premium manufacturer Jowat looked to get a tighter grip on its inventory
management and production processes.  

To ensure maximum efficiency, Jowat requires enough raw materials to fulfill
orders while minimizing waste and inventory costs. Moreover, the company needs
smooth workflows, as any delay in order placement, production, or the delivery
of raw materials can have huge cost implications for the company. As a result,
Jowat works hard to ensure that its 24/7 manufacturing processes always run like
clockwork.

With demand for industrial adhesives surging, the company was eager to ensure
that its production processes could scale to meet increasing order numbers and
still deliver optimum efficiency.

Deliver individualized, sustainable, and smart equipment, products, and
components in industrial manufacturing
Learn more


TARGETING SEAMLESS DIGITAL WORKFLOWS

Originally established in 1919, Jowat is no stranger to innovation. Leaders at
Jowat identified that the next stage of the company’s evolution would require a
radical digital transformation of its production and inventory management
processes. 

“Our factory workers relied heavily on paper-based processes,” explained
Dirk-Alexander Segger, Detmold plant manager at Jowat. “For instance, when
employees had finished mixing and decanting adhesives, they handwrote notes to
track the volume and type of raw materials that they used during the process.
Shortly after decanting, workers would then input the information from their
notes into our inventory management and manufacturing execution systems, adding
to their workload and increasing the risk of errors.” 

Tracking materials usage manually created time delays, potential for human
errors, and discrepancies between the stock numbers recorded in Jowat’s
inventory system and the actual volume of raw materials available on the factory
floor. Moreover, with information stored across multiple systems and in
different formats, plant managers had no clarity to identify process bottlenecks
or potential enhancements.  

Annette Podleschny-Borchardt, project lead at Jowat, commented: “To enhance
efficiency, improve transparency, and prepare for growth, we decided it was time
to go entirely paperless. Building digital processes would give us a more
detailed, up-to-date picture of our stock position, which would help drive
smarter raw materials purchasing decisions and production improvements.” 

“We aimed to take a more proactive approach to our manufacturing processes.
Developing robust, reliable, end-to-end digital workflows was the perfect way to
achieve this goal,” explained Christine Künne, head of IT and Business Process
Services at Jowat SE. 


EMBRACING DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

To find the best solution to support its digital transformation initiative,
Jowat invited multiple technology vendors to outline the strengths of their
solutions. To keep customization low, Jowat targeted a solution that it could
easily adapt to meet the highly specialized nature of just-in-time chemicals
manufacturing.  

After reviewing 15 different solutions, Jowat selected SAP Digital
Manufacturing. In addition to providing a solid foundation for digitalization,
SAP Digital Manufacturing can also integrate seamlessly with Jowat’s existing
SAP solutions, including SAP S/4HANA, SAP Extended Warehouse Management, and SAP
Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP). 

Sustainable, risk-resilient manufacturing is here
Learn more about SAP Digital Manufacturing

“We were immediately interested in SAP Digital Manufacturing because it is a
cloud-native solution,” commented Segger. “Previously, we used on-premise
solutions that required us to carry out extensive and disruptive updates. With
SAP Digital Manufacturing, we get instant access to the latest features thanks
to the quarterly release schedule.” 

Jowat also valued SAP’s proactive engagement with the chemicals manufacturing
industry. “We really appreciate that SAP is eager to co-innovate with industry
leaders like Jowat to develop next-generation manufacturing solutions,” said
Podleschny-Borchardt. “Through the SAP Customer Engagement Initiative, we can
help expert developers at SAP build smart factory solutions that meet the needs
of our sector down to the finest detail.” 


STICKING WITH THE EXPERTS 

To ensure a smooth implementation of SAP Digital Manufacturing, Jowat relied on
support from SAP Services and Support.

“Whenever we hit a stumbling block, the experts helped us work through the
issues. For instance, we wanted to develop a dedicated production operation
dashboard, which would give plant managers fast access to key production
metrics. As this was uncharted territory, it naturally took a lot of time and
energy to work through and SAP was behind us every step of the way,” said
Segger.

Currently, Jowat is completing the first phase of the SAP Digital Manufacturing
implementation at its Detmold factory before expanding the solution across all
plants. Künne explained: “With a phased implementation, we can ensure that the
processes we build at our Detmold plant are tried and tested to deliver maximum
efficiency. This will give us the best chance of success when we roll out these
processes across all our facilities.” 

“Consultants from SAP Services and Support brought not only their expertise to
the project, but also the willingness to listen to the needs and the challenges
of our industry. Because of this, we were able to collaborate extremely
effectively,” added Podleschny-Borchardt.


DRIVING EFFICIENT MANUFACTURING WITH HIGH-QUALITY DATA 

With SAP Digital Manufacturing, Jowat left error-prone, manual processes behind
and now benefits from seamless digital workflows with end-to-end
transparency. This helps increase quality and ease work for shop floor
operators. The activity confirmation is automatically done in the SAP system,
enabling real-time inventory insight. 

Consequently, Jowat gained the following benefits:

 * 100% digitalized manufacturing process
 * One source of truth for detailed production information
 * Time savings of three person days per week through automated raw material
   consumption updates allowing employees focus on higher value activities
 * 100% accurate inventory

“Today workers feed consumption information at the point of production.
Previously, it would take one full-time employee three days a week to track raw
materials consumption,” said Segger. “With SAP Digital Manufacturing, we have a
real-time, accurate picture of our raw materials usage and needs. This is
helping us optimize usage and reduce costs.” 

Podleschny-Borchardt added: “Production processes are so much faster now that we
have built streamlined digital processes. Before, our paper-based ways of
working could add up to five days to production timelines. With SAP Digital
Manufacturing, we’ve shaved off this time, allowing us to produce and distribute
products to our customers much faster, boosting satisfaction.” 


PLANNING AHEAD FOR AN AI-DRIVEN FUTURE 

With reliable, up-to-date information in SAP Digital Manufacturing, plant
managers and leaders at Jowat can have full visibility across the entire
manufacturing cycle. “SAP Digital Manufacturing has helped improve the
traceability of our products and given us a much more detailed understanding of
our manufacturing operations. Ultimately, that helps to enhance planning and
provides new insights into potential process improvements,” said Künne.  

Jowat’s plans for SAP Digital Manufacturing go far beyond a global rollout. The
company is already exploring the potential to scale and streamline manufacturing
processes further with artificial intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things (IoT)
technologies. 

“AI holds tremendous potential for us,” reflected Podleschny-Borchardt. “We’re
excited to explore how it can help us to ensure consistently excellent quality
across heavily customized product lines and how we can enhance production uptime
with IoT-driven predictive maintenance. Having an AI-ready solution like SAP
Digital Manufacturing at the heart of our operations makes taking these next
steps in our innovation journey much easier.” 

Summarizing the overall benefits, Künne concluded: “With the implementation of
SAP Digital Manufacturing through SAP Services and Support, we see ourselves on
the way to becoming a transparent factory with a reduction in risks, errors, and
process costs thanks to optimized processes.” 

Discover benefits other companies have gained, including improved quality with
AI-assisted visual inspection. Be sure to listen to the webinar about how a
renowned manufacturer revolutionizes manufacturing with Industry 4.0. Also, read
this report from Oxford Economics about making supply chains more resilient and
sustainable.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Karin Fent is senior director of Global Customer Success for Digital Supply
Chain at SAP.

Top image courtesy of Jowat.

Get the latest SAP news delivered to your inbox every week
Subscribe today
Tags: Customer StoryDigital TransformationManufacturingSAP Digital
ManufacturingSAP Services and Support


READ MORE

Newsbyte


SAP POWERS SIEMENS ENERGY IN SAP DIGITAL MANUFACTURING IMPLEMENTATION MILESTONE

by SAP News
October 25, 2023
Blog


SUPPLY CHAIN ISSUES KEEPING CEOS UP AT NIGHT

by Thomas Saueressig
November 13, 2023
Feature


HANNOVER MESSE: MAKING MANUFACTURING MORE RESILIENT

by Luis Trunk de Flores
April 26, 2023
 * Why SAP
 * Intelligent Enterprise
 * Small and Midsize Enterprises
 * SAP Trust Center
 * SAP Insights
 * SAP Community
 * Developer
 * Support Portal

 * Company Information
 * Worldwide Directory
 * Investor Relations
 * Careers
 * News and Press
 * Events
 * Customer Stories
 * Newsletter

 * Privacy
 * Terms of Use
 * Legal Disclosure
 * Copyright
 * Trademark
 * Sitemap
 * Cookie Voorkeursinstellingen

Contact Us


United States
+1-800-872-1727
Or see our complete list of local country numbers

Contact us

Find us on
 * 
 * 
 * 
 * 
 * 
 * 

Deze website maakt gebruik van cookies en gerelateerde technologie zoals
beschreven in de privacyverklaring, voor doeleinden die de werking van de site,
analyse, verbeterde gebruikerservaring of reclame kunnen omvatten. U kunt ervoor
kiezen om in te stemmen met ons gebruik van deze technologieën, of om uw eigen
voorkeuren te beheren.
Instellingen beheren Alles accepteren Alles afwijzen Cookieverklaring