Automation of reporting routines
Abena is a high-tech company that produces hygiene products and diapers for consumers, hospitals and nursing homes. On a typical day, they produce 4,000 nappies a minute on 13 production lines. It is obvious that productivity is important and every hour costs a lot of money.
Planned stop - when and why?
In order to make the whole production process work, a complex process takes place between buyers, production staff, management and the people in charge of preventive maintenance of machines. If a production line stops, it has a major financial impact on the company, but also on the employees who are paid by the productivity.
Until today, it has been economically and administratively impossible to communicate the priorities for repair and maintenance. There are too many people to inform and this cannot be achieved once the machines stop.
A mini Business Intelligence system
The solution has been to implement ReportByEmail. The system is a mini BI (Business Intelligence) system. It is an automated system that sends information directly to each employee, by email, intranet, SMS or to a printer.
An overwhelming result
“Broadly speaking, in terms of productivity alone, we have created DKK 200,000 more per month. On the procurement side, we reduce the risk of double purchasing and repetitive work processes. ReportByEmail has meant that the work of the maintenance department has become visible. In addition, I have gained a great personal assurance that important work is being done. It has given me more time, which is worth a lot of money in a hectic working day.” Says Michael Petersen, Purchasing leader at Abena Produktion A/S.
The system paid for itself in one day
BI systems are traditionally very large, complicated and quite costly. But that’s not the case with ReportByEmail.
“I must have over 70 reports. In the traditional sense, I would never have been able to inform that much. The payback time for ReportByEmail was already achieved the day we earned an extra hour in production – it’s that simple”, says Michael Petersen smiling with satisfaction.
Immediate reporting leads to a better bottom line
ReportByEmail can retrieve data and distribute data from many different systems, freeing up a lot of work resources.
“Now it is no longer those who shout the loudest who get their priorities across. Everyone can see that there is a bigger strategic plan. Repairs are based on facts and everyone is informed. Another effect is that we get repetitive machine failures corrected because we are notified immediately.”
Manual reporting is old-fashioned
Of course, you can spend time distributing reports in the traditional way. But it’s time-consuming and far too slow. In ReportByEmail, a report is automatically sent out either at a fixed time, or based on an event that you want to monitor in a database. Since everything is done automatically, employees can react to the information immediately.
“The system is set up so that each person gets individual information. That means, for example, that my technical manager doesn’t have to find his way around a programme he doesn’t know. ReportByEmail itself pulls the reports he needs”.
I design my own reports
“Once you understand the impact of ReportByEmail, you get the appetite to automate even more processes. ReportByEmail manages to create a new employee behaviour and discipline within the company. For example, in the statutory inspection of machinery and building components. ReportByEmail now monitors the statutory inspections of, for example, wagon doors. If it is missed, the electrical department gets a direct reminder. This way, nothing gets forgotten – and that’s good for safety – something we take seriously at Abena”.
Michael Petersen has been using ReportByEmail since 2008. He designed his own reports from day one. It is very easy to learn. They are designed in standard Excel and the information is retrieved using. the built-in database search tool.
Small actions create big results
“I see many opportunities to automate business processes. Not only in maintenance and production, but in many other places. My latest venture is to help the purchasing department. Every morning they get a summary of yesterday’s purchase requisitions. So the buyer doesn’t have to look up the system to see if an item has been ordered. In fact, employees have started requesting new reports themselves. Today, I don’t understand how I could work without it in the past,” concludes Michael Petersen.