How we guided Cloostermans through its ERP implementation

Cloostermans-Huwaert is a Belgian machine-building company providing creative and innovative solutions. Machines are engineered to order. All project aspects can be provided in-house: mechanical and electrical engineering, manufacturing, assembly and integration/testing. To enhance productivity, increase efficiency and decrease costs, the company decided in 2016 to renew the existing enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. Our experts were there to guide the company through its business analysis, request for proposal (RFP) and fit-gap workshops. In addition, we supported the entire transition and the implementation process.

The business environment in which Cloostermans operates is in rapid evolution. To be able to adapt to changing business conditions and demands, the company chose to re-evaluate their current ERP system. Of course, this kind of strategic choice impacts the whole organization and comes with quite a few challenges.

About D. Cloostermans-Huwaert

D. Cloostermans-Huwaert is a machine-building company in Hamme (Belgium), founded six generations ago in 1884. The company specializes in the development of customized and innovative turnkey solutions and machines through its expertise in mechanical and electrical engineering, manufacturing, assembly and integration/testing. In recent years, the company has expanded to its current size of 30,000 m2 and around 280 employees.

Challenges

From the beginning, Cloostermans’ demands were very high. The company wanted to introduce a system that would allow them to:

improve internal information flows,
reinforce interaction between its departments,
standardize data and ways of working,
improve reporting and cost calculation,
maintain the flexibility to serve their customers without interruption.

On top of that, the biggest challenge would be to keep the implementation from impacting existing data or ongoing business.

Solutions

In a first stage, our consultants helped to determine the scope of this project by conducting workshops on business processes related to engineering and production. In addition, other workshops and one-on-one meetings were organized to achieve a definition of the requirements. Next, our experts compiled a request for proposal (RFP) according to the defined goals, approach, functional and non-functional demands.

Based on the RFP, an implementation partner and software system were chosen. Finally, the ERP system SAP S/4HANA emerged as the best solution. D. Cloostermans-Huwaert’s implementation partner is executing the installation and configuration. Our experts are taking care of overall project management (including scope management, stakeholder involvement and change management) and are supporting Cloostermans during the entire transition.

Results

The project kicked off in 2016 with the business analysis. Its go-live is scheduled for mid-2018. With SAP S/4HANA, Cloostermans will be able to rely on one enterprise-wide information system that allows the coordination of its resources, customer data and business processes. The expected results:

improved daily operations,
more transparent internal information flows,
easier information exchange between departments,
standardized ways of working,
enhanced professionalism,
quicker response to customer demand.

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