One of the biggest SAP roll-out projects in Poland has started: BCC supports Poznań branch of an American corporation Kimball Electronics Group in SAP implementation.
The project called ‘Rollout 5 Wave 1’ is the last phase of a global project of the implementation of a corporate SAP standard, used in Kimball Electronics Group that specializes in order-based production of electronic equipment. The corporate SAP standard is already used by the units of Kimball Electronics Group in the USA, Mexico and Thailand.
The project objective is standardizing the management in all companies of the concern and improving the efficiency of business processes. A global implementation introduces the best practices in finance, supply management, production and sales, quality management and human resources, worked out in the American units of Kimball.
Implementing the corporate model will require introducing necessary organizational changes in the functioning of the unit in Poznań. At the same time an important objective to achieve is also adjusting the system to local specificity, both in business practices and Polish legal regulations. In all areas where modifying the corporate SAP standard is not necessary (or economically sound), the corporate standard will prevail.
The implementation works started at the beginning of April 2004. The first phase is executed in Poznań and in the headquarters of the concern in Jasper, Indiana, in cooperation with an American implementation team. There the employees of the Kimball Electronics Poland unit in Poznań and BCC consultants learn about the corporate SAP standard. In the next phase the Polish-American teams, together with BCC consultants, will verify the corporate concept in terms of legal characteristics and business conditions of the Polish unit. They will also define the requirements for SAP system configuration and the necessary developments of its functionality.
The configuration works will be executed by the American team, while BCC in consecutive phases will specify the necessary modifications, train SAP key users and prepare the Polish version of documentation (of the system and user’s manual), and provide support during and immediately after the productive start of the system.
Kimball Electronics Poland will start using SAP system in February 2005.
‘Preparing such a complex project requires support from an implementation partner who knows not only the specificity of such projects but also local legal and business conditions. We have chosen BCC, because its consultants have an experience in SAP implementations in Poland. They also supported over 20 international corporations in projects similar to ours’, said Przemysław Krasiński, project manager for Kimball Electronics Poland.
Kimball Electronics Poland Sp. z o.o. is a unit of American Kimball Electronics Group owned by a corporation Kimball International, Inc., seated in Jasper, Indiana. Kimball Electronics Group has production plants in the USA, Mexico, Thailand and Poland. The group specializes in order-based manufacturing and assembling of electronic equipment in the following areas: automotive, telecommunications, IT, medical and industrial automatic engineering. The customers of the unit in Poznań are mostly automotive businesses. Kimball Electronics Poland employs more than 640 people.
