StanleyBlack&Decker Corporation
The challenge: digitizing requisitions via app
Tucker GmbH is part of the StanleyBlack&Decker Corporation and supplies the automotive industry with stud welding equipment, studs, metal and plastic parts, among other things.
As part of its digital transformation, StanleyBlack&Decker is focusing not only on production processes but also on internal administrative processes. The processes mapped via paper forms, e-mail and EXCEL files are to be digitized step by step and integrated into a standardized workflow environment.
Transparency, Speed and Cost Reduction
- Transparency in process flows by ensuring compliance and regulatory (quality) requirements or reporting data
- Accelerated processing by eliminating manual interfaces and automated reminders of open tasks
- Reduction of errors
- Reduction of costs, for example through fewer dunning costs in the invoicing processes and standardized
- differentiation between warranty cases and service cases
The Procedure
Process modelling, pilot, digitalizationVueJS, .NET Core and BPMN 2.0 in use
The technologies chosen were VueJS in the front end and .Net Core with ASP.NET Core in the back end. The modeling of the processes in the BPMN 2.0 standard and the use of a process engine was desired by StanleyBlack&Decker. However, as there was no experience in this area, a suitable engine had to be selected at the start of the project.
The methods and tools were then to be tested using a pilot. The requirement request process, or BANF for short, was used for this purpose. This is the implementation of a US regulation, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX), to which the US listed company StanleyBlack&Decker is subject. Every purchase order must be based on a valid, correctly approved requisition in accordance with the signature regulations. The requisitions and the necessary approvals were previously carried out on paper. The turnaround times were very long and there was a lack of transparency. As part of the pilot, the paper form and the downstream approval process, including the complex set of rules for determining the approvers and checking the entries, were completely digitized.
Next, the complex PPAP (Production Part Approval Process, IATF 16949) process was digitized. In this process, series parts are sampled to ensure quality. Among other things, various documents must be created or provided, parts and measuring procedures must be checked and material and performance tests must be carried out. The implementation was so successful internationally that the application was made multi-client capable and internationalized in a subsequent project. It is now used by various sites within the Group.
Due to the quickly visible benefits and the high level of acceptance of the process applications among employees, further processes were tackled in subsequent projects and implemented on the Camunda platform, including the downstream process for releasing invoices (SOX), the process for ordering tools and processes relating to shipments without an invoice.
"The team deliberately brings in people from all specialist areas. One special feature is that the product is developed with the user in mind. We don't come up with something that doesn't work in the application afterwards."Nicole HoffmannJunior Account Manager, Stanley
Implementation with Camunda, BPMN and Azure Cloud
Accso initially advised StanleyBlack&Decker on the selection of the optimal tools and technologies in order to make the digitalization of processes flexible and future-proof. As part of a market study, Accso evaluated various process engines based on criteria such as scalability, interfaces, testability, migration and error handling, as well as usability and support. The Camunda platform (Camunda 7) was convincing in all categories.
Following the successful completion of the pilot, Accso successively specified the further processes together with the customer using an agile approach (Scrum), modeled them in BPMN 2.0 and implemented them on the Camunda platform. The integration of IT systems from Tucker GmbH, such as the ERP system, also played a major role.
All digitized processes run in the form of applications in the Azure Cloud. Accso was also able to provide support here and automatically created the necessary infrastructure and an automated deployment process with Azure DevOps to provide the applications and parts of their infrastructure components.
