Transparent handling of process orders at Kuraray thanks to the order controlling cockpit in the APICON Data Master

The challenge

Fewer errors in the billing of process orders

We needed a tool that would support us in the billing and evaluation of process orders and enable defined mass functions at the click of a button.

The challenge was to answer questions about the booking of our process orders promptly and accurately. The evaluations of material usage in production needed to be available more quickly and designed more clearly. The previously reactive way of working was to be transformed into a proactive way of working. Another aim was to reduce the workload through various mass processing functions. The tool was also to be integrated into SAP.

No transparency in the process

Reactive correction of incorrect postings due to a lack of transparency in the process

Previously, we only had a few user-friendly reports available for our requirements. Manually collected documents could be evaluated via an MS Access database. Although this enabled us to answer the questions asked, there was a lack of transparency and the workload and error rate were high.

This way of working was very reactive, often triggered by anomalies that had a negative monetary impact on our income statement.

Decision in favor of APICON

Flexible solution required

We contacted APICON early on in our search for a solution and had several very productive discussions. The decision was therefore based in particular on APICON's high level of solution expertise, the high degree of flexibility of the solution and the exceptionally good cooperation.

Order controlling in the APICON Data Master

Proactive monitoring of order billing creates the necessary transparency

With the order controlling cockpit in APICON Data Master, we can now track our process orders in the bookings very precisely. Incorrect postings are immediately apparent thanks to the real-time display of the monetary deviation of the process order and can be corrected before they are reflected in our income statement.

Key figures for process orders
We provide further support by defining key figures that adequately describe our process orders according to our requirements. These include, for example, throughput, the input-output ratio or the main and secondary yield percentages. This ensures that the cause of an order deviation is immediately recognizable for the experienced user. Finally, the design of the view layout makes it possible to restrict the view to those process orders that are relevant to the amount of the deviation. The order controlling cockpit offers further advantages when evaluating material and service bookings for a large number of process orders in a defined period. The cockpit displays the CO reports of the individual process orders in tabular form in a separate window. This makes aggregated evaluations of a large number of orders very clear.

Less effort thanks to mass maintenance
In addition to the display and monitoring functions, we have integrated various mass processing functions into the order controlling cockpit. For example, we can make status changes to process orders, confirm process orders individually and in bulk, as well as maintain process orders and planned orders with fixing via Excel integration using mass creation.