Implementing the new system, which is about halfway complete, requires ripping out disparate software at locations worldwide and replacing it with front-end software to access the centralized applications and data. It will provide plant managers, material buyers, planners, and salespeople with access to the same information about global operations. That means managers with overworked production lines at one plant can learn immediately if a plant hundreds of miles away has the capacity to pick up the extra work.
It's a touchy initiative, requiring change from people at factories with many distinct cultures and established ways of doing things. "There are country and company fiefdoms who have been operating the way they do for 75 or more years," Hilmer says. GrafTech put together an international team with representation from every plant and business line. They worked together for almost a year at a company office in Switzerland, planning and building a model for the new system.
The first PeopleSoft module that went live models GrafTech's global supply chain to provide better understanding of customers, suppliers, and plant capacity. Other modules manage demand forecasting, production, and distribution planning.
The new system requires GrafTech to clean and standardize all existing data before loading it into the PeopleSoft software. It's a big job, but it's worth it, Hilmer says. "If there's less time spent on disparity, there's more time to spend on analyzing information and making decisions."
--Beth Bacheldor
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