They can now do everything via one system, causing them to work much more efficiently.
Get more from the existing WebSphere portal. This is what Omron Europe, a company that provides solutions for, amongst others, industrial automation, had in mind for some time. “When it became clear that our European Repair Center in Den Bosch was going to outsource part of their activities, it was the moment to put our ideas into practice,” says Anco van Raalte, Project Office Manager at Omron. In cooperation with IBM Business Partner Inter Access, the company launched the use of Bowstreet development tools in support of the development of an application that offers technicians full insight into the current repair activities.
Omron Europe is part of Omron Corporation, a Japanese enterprise with approximately 24,000 employees worldwide. Apart from solutions for industrial automation, the company produces electronic components, medical equipment and parts for the automotive industry. At its European Repair Center in Den Bosch, Omron carries out 20,000 repairs for customers from over eighteen countries per year. Van Raalte: “Customers could already check the status of their repair online. We also wanted to get more insight into the activities on the technical side. This is essential, especially now that we are going to outsource part of our activities to a foreign partner.”
Two and a half years ago Omron started using the WebSphere portal. With it, the company offers the 2,000 employees in Europe a mixture of European and local information. Furthermore, the European Repair Center in Den Bosch uses the portal to provide repair information to customers via a track-and-trace function. At the end of January 2006 Omron started the development of a new application for technicians, in which they can find all details on repairs: from barcodes and Repair Material Authorization numbers (RMA) up to and including the place in the queue and the availability of parts. Van Raalte: “Major advantage is that the technicians, using the RMA number, have direct access from the portal to the Baan ERP systems for information and writing off parts. They can now do everything via one system, causing them to work much more efficiently.”
Omron wants to make the system available to the new partner as soon as possible. “Everything is going exactly according to plan,” says Van Raalte. “We just heard that we are going to work together with this foreign partner. In a month, the final version of the application will be available and we can deploy it immediately for training the external employees of this new partner. In two months, the new partner will carry out the first repairs. Using the new system we can monitor these repairs perfectly.” The quick development was possible, partly due to the deployment of the Bowstreet development tool. “We have limited Java knowledge, but we wanted a fast process nonetheless,” says Van Raalte. “Inter Access provided the answer with this tool. It is a nice springboard if you want to build up Java knowledge internally. Moreover, experienced Java developers are four to five times more efficient with Bowstreet. So the knife cuts both ways. Inter Access, as Bowstreet specialist, has helped us on the way substantially. Two of their developers freed up all required time and attention to support our people in the learning process.”
Bowstreet is not only interesting as a development tool, but also enables the deployment of ready-made Bowstreet applications. By now, Omron has decided to use the Corporate Performance Suite as well, for generating repair reports with information on duration, customers, products and technical data. “Based on these reports we can, for example, find out which products require the most repairs and whether we can speak of trends,” says Van Raalte. “In the factory, we can check the possible causes and take measures if needed. That way, we improve the quality of our products.” Although the portal projects are still in the testing stage, Omron is very content with the progress. Van Raalte: “Just like previous projects, Inter Access has proved itself to be a valuable partner. Openness and trust are always characteristic of the cooperation. In addition, we appreciate their proactive attitude and their efforts to keep us informed of the latest developments. This portal is extremely suitable for integrating systems and data sources. There is a big chance that we will develop extra applications for this in the future and in doing so, will call on Inter Access again.”