Isuzu Motors Polska sp. z o.o., a Tychy-based Diesel engines manufacturer, with BCC support has modified a model of electronic communication with Japanese suppliers. The solution is supported by SAP R/3 version 4.6c used by Isuzu.
The plant in Tychy, whose main shareholder is General Motors, purchases components for its products from over twenty permanent suppliers. Order placing is made through a distribution center in Japan, which picks deliveries from different partners and ships them to the Polish company.
Up to now all the purchase process has been strongly centralized: the plant in Tychy placed orders in the distribution center that in turn passed orders to suppliers. To shorten the time of deliveries and make the logistic chain more efficient, Isuzu Motors Polska decided on decentralization of order placing. Now the Polish company sends orders directly to suppliers.
The whole process is operated by SAP R/3. Communication with suppliers is done through an internet portal where weekly orders from Tychy and weekly plans of receipts are sent, created by the distribution center responsible for transport.
Within the project carried out for Isuzu Motors Polska, BCC introduced changes in SAP R/3, which enable to generate orders from SAP R/3 directly to the suppliers’ portal. The order data sent by EDI as an electronic IDOC message are used by suppliers to prepare a delivery and issue an invoice for the Polish unit. Next, based on these data, the distribution center picks a delivery for Isuzu Motors Polska. SAP functionality named Handling Unit Management (HUM) is used in delivery completion. BCC prepared a development of a standard delivery–servicing HUM functionality which enables to operate a delivery from a distribution center with reference to order documents (many suppliers) and one delivery document.
Decentralization of the purchase process was made possible by a development of communication service EDI in SAP R/3 system, which allows for communication with multiple suppliers. Additionally, through an automatic registration of information on delivery status in SAP R/3, sent electronically, Isuzu Motors Polska will have at its disposal current data to make planning and production control smoother.
Jakub Borowczyk, IT manager in the company, says: ”Thanks to changing the order process and modifications made by BCC in SAP R/3 solutions we use, we are making further step in improving our logistic processes. Using the data from SAP R/3 in communication between the Polish company, our suppliers and the Japanese distribution center results in a better cooperation. Automatic processes mean much less work on introducing data, and the possibility of a mistake in documents is almost non-existent now”.
