Steltix helps FANUC unite legal entities and business processes in various European countries.
Founded in 1956 and headquartered in Japan, FANUC is the world’s leader in factory automation and global manufacturers of industrial robots, computer numerical control (CNC) systems, and purpose-built machines for wire-cut, electric injection moulding, and milling and drilling machines.
“Steltix was the right choice for us because it offered everything that we needed for this massive project.”
With a global network covering every continent and more than 210 local offices, FANUC’s solutions for industrial automation help build automobiles, electronics, and thousands of other consumer products by servicing more than 17 million products installed worldwide.
Starting in 2012, FANUC decided to consolidate its European enterprise resource planning (ERP) landscape, which consisted of a variety of systems. “We needed to consolidate many disparate systems and operations for more than 1,200 employees and get everyone on the same ERP solution,” says Joachim Clemens-Stolbrink, head of IT at FANUC Europe. The target was set to have a total of more than 30 subsidiaries to all be in the same system within 24 months. Clemens Stolbrink turned to Oracle Platinum Partner Steltix for help with aligning FANUC’s business operations, which required centralizing IT in the company’s European headquarters in Luxembourg. “Processes needed to be standardized, and common platforms needed to be built,” he says. “Steltix was the right choice for us because it offered everything that we needed for this massive project—proven project management and methodology, and Europe-wide implementation experience, coupled with specific software and support solutions, and documentation tools. Plus, the company is well established across Europe.”
According to Fabian Klose, managing director at Steltix, the in-country knowledge and language skills Steltix consultants offer were particularly crucial for this project. “We were rolling out Oracle’s JD Edwards at more than 30 FANUC campuses, from Sweden to Turkey and from Portugal to Russia,” he says.
After being halfway through the project, FANUC decided to legally merge the FANUC business division into one legal organization per country. “I was very happy with how flexibly JD Edwards EnterpriseOne was able to deal with organizational change,” says Ralf Zeisberger, CFO at FANUC Europe.
Today, there are more than 600 active JD Edwards users in FANUC’s European sites. “JD Edwards covers all of our essential business processes now,” says Antonio Forestieri, project manager for the ERP consolidation project at FANUC Europe. “More than 200,000 warehouse transactions and close to 10,000 shipments are handled natively in JD Edwards in the Luxembourg central warehouse every month. All European entities are operating on a standardized chart of accounts and are ready to report numbers three days after month-end closing.”
As the organization continues to expand in Europe, thanks to JD Edwards, the new software template can be deployed within eight weeks into any new site.