New task: Managing the shortage

Functioning supply chain management despite the crisis at an international machine manufacturer

Karl Mayer Textilmaschinenfabrik has an excellent reputation in the international textile industry. The group of companies manufactures warp knitting machines for the production of clothing as well as technical textiles. Headquartered in Obertshausen, the group of companies has production sites in India, Italy, China, Japan and the USA. It is represented wherever the main markets are.

Over the past three years, the company has had to pay increased attention to its procurement processes. The reasons for this are varied and well-known. Sonja Meyrose, Head of Operational Procurement: "Due to the coronavirus crisis, particularly the shortage of semiconductors, and now also the war in Ukraine, we have had to deal with extensions and adjustments to delivery times as well as delivery date delays. As we need a lot of electronic components, this has hit us very hard and is still affecting us."

Safety stocks quickly increased

Those responsible reacted quickly. "We extended our lead times in the procurement of purchased parts to give suppliers time to adjust their procurement and production processes," says Meyrose. Equally important was the need to compensate for the volatility in the procurement processes: "We monitor our safety stocks with ifm's Rule Workbench. This enables us to always adapt our safety stocks to the current market situation, to current requirements and, above all, to delivery times. We can therefore react quickly here too and have of course increased our safety stocks significantly over the last two years, especially for electrical parts."

Digitalisation helps in the crisis

One thing is clear: Digitalisation helps during the crisis and in the final phases of a crisis. Because the current motto is: Command back! When – as is the case now – supply chains start to pick up again, it is important to prevent overstocking. Meyrose explains: "We can also recognise such developments very quickly with the tools from ifm and take countermeasures."

Quick action is required to prevent dregs from forming in the first place: cancelling, extending target ranges, reducing safety stocks. Transparency and speed are the be-all and end-all, says Meyrose. It is therefore important to always have up-to-date data material, meaningful reports and overviews on a screen, as this is the only way that the planning department can maintain an overview and intervene in good time. For these reasons, Karl Mayer Textilmaschinenfabrik will definitely continue along the path of digitalisation in procurement. "We have always been digital and SAP-supported. But now we are making our processes even more digital, which is supported, for example, by the use of MS Teams and mobile working," emphasises Meyrose.

Ever faster, ever more digital

Digitalisation always means that everything goes faster. This is often positive, but also a challenge, as Meyrose explains: "Faster also means more stressful, simply because shorter response times are expected – in both directions. This also applies to information on missing parts, backlogs and assembly. But that's the way things are. It benefits us, and with the right IT tools in the supply chain, we are prepared for it. And sometimes you can and must ask for understanding in internal communication that you can't always have an immediate answer to everything."