With the successful go-live, STOCKMEIER, being an innovative pioneer in process automation, can expand its existing digitalization strategy, leverage optimized processes, and further, pursue profitable B2B scenarios and future growth.
NTT DATA Business Solutions offered the right solution for our complex requirements – it.x-EDIconnect as an integration platform between SAP and OPC-UA-supported production control enables stable operation of the systems.
Rouwen Björn Goese, Head of Customer IT Solutions, STOCKMEIER Group
Industry: Chemicals and wholesale
Products: Chemical products for various industries
Employees: 1,900 (2022)
Turnover: 1.3 billion Euros (2020)
Website: www.stockmeier.com
Challenges
Benefits
Solutions
An Intelligent Solution: it.x-EDIconnect and IoT for Clean Processes
Since its foundation in 1920, the family-owned STOCKMEIER Group has evolved into a group of companies with international operations. With more than 1,800 employees, over 50 locations around the world, around 26,000 products, and more than two million tons in sales every year, the Bielefeld-based company in eastern Westphalia is an expert in the production, distribution, and service of chemical products. Its comprehensive range of products extends from solvents and flavors/aromas to cleaners and lyes for use in various requirements and industries. STOCKMEIER has more than 30,000 customers around the globe, who can rely on high standards of quality and customer satisfaction. To advance its production processes to the next intelligent level, STOCKMEIER chose NTT DATA, a full-service IT provider also based in Bielefeld.
Industry 4.0 and the Internet of Things (IoT) offer companies valuable potential for the digitalization of business processes and workflows. Production in particular can benefit from new technologies, including IoT sensors that are connected to machinery to capture machine data. With this data, it’s possible to track production workflows in realtime, predict downtime, and avoid production losses and disruptions. But where can those large quantities of data be stored, and how should they be processed? Is this something that companies can do without a great deal of effort in terms of staff, time, and financial resources? The answer to that is yes! it.x-EDIconnect with IoT and integrated OPC UA-server is an integration platform that enables highly efficient electronic exchange of data for all data formats. The solution can also be used for communication with customers, suppliers, carriers and sensor data. All data are adopted from the SAP system, and every data exchange is transparently monitored via different monitoring measures.
While the STOCKMEIER Group gets to enjoy the benefits of the EDI platform it.x-EDIconnect, STOCKMEIER Urethanes was eager to address two complex requirements: Creation of an integration platform for the internal interfaces and a solution that enables OPC-UA server integration. The comprehensive IoT project was then designed in liaison with NTT DATA as the innovation driver. The aim of it.x-EDIconnect and IoT technology: To transfer SAP planning and recipe management to production control via the OPCUA interface. The shop floor connection also needed to be ensured. Consequently, the exchange of quantities, batches, and stocks was set up via IoT sensor technology to provide accurate feedback, the interface was implemented in SAP, and more than 430 data measuring points were converted as trigger points in the OPC UA-server.
NTT DATA also helped with the development of the internal interfaces and new requirements for the B2B processes and provided expert training to users so they could develop their own mappings. Following the successful go-live, STOCKMEIER, as an innovative pioneer of process automation, can expand its existing digitalization strategy, benefit from optimized processes, and continue to go after profitable B2B scenarios and future growth. An outstanding result!
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