Category: ADOPT THE SINGLE SOURCE OF TRUTH

HORECA

Product customization in this industry is an essential element. Managing related marketing information with EKR Orchestra will be quick and effective.

This industry needs excellent management of marketing information which must be oriented to the customized configuration of the product by the end user.

For example, building an industrial kitchen requires combining a line of machines together with particular tools, thus resulting extremely configured according to the needs of the consumer and the environment in which it will be inserted.

This is done by preparing a set of different pieces, often coming from different manufacturers; whoever has managed the related information through the PIM, will be able to respond very easily to the needs of partners who need the product information that they must configure in final lines that will then become the kitchens.

A good management of PIM information for the HORECA world allows you to create documents marketing precise and complete and at the same time technical documents, User and Maintenance Manuals, as well as installation ones, detailed and consistent with marketing information.

Automotive

The importance of controlling information from the single detail to the complete medium is a trait that unites the various faces of a particularly multifaceted industry.

In the automotive world, the main needs, in terms of product data management, are two:

• those of the manufacturers of vehicles for civil / individual / industrial use
• those of the manufacturers of the components required for initial set-up or maintenance.

Training

Rigor in the structuring of data, but also flexibility in their organization and publication: an efficient management waiting to be discovered.

When a company begins its journey with EKR Orchestra, it must first begin to adopt the language of EKR, which is very rigorous, but allows all the levels of flexibility necessary to describe the data structures and processes present. in the company. This is the first stage of the training: start speak the same language.

Then we analyze the result of the analysis, and we begin to understand what role and what are the tools of the EKR Orchestra suite that will then have to be used in the various phases of the work: content creation and maintenance, content aggregation, document assembly. dynamic or static or dynamic output configuration.

Depending on the type of activity to be carried out, every single person involved in the training will be trained in a different way, specifically based on the method of use most suited to their needs. Different aspects of the various tools will also be explored (link to the product menu), depending on the processes in which those who work on this project will be involved and the type of information they will have to manage.

Each person, each information owner will have a specific tool for managing their information, designed for the type of information itself and for the process that involves it.

Smart document creation

Dynamic and connected to the EKR-PIM database, it can be published on different media: from InDesign (PDF) to Web and Tablet (HTML5), up to Responsive (HTML Mapped)

A central and unique element of the EKR Orchestra scenario is the use of Smart Documents.

A part of EKR’s services is represented by the creation at the prototype level, or production starting point, of Smart Documents in the technical and marketing fields, correctly created and configured in the manner initially established. The Smart Document is the tool that is halfway between the technical data, the granular information, the graphic properties of the tools, the graphic properties of InDesign, as well as the geometric and configured or conditional management of contents.

A typical case of use of Smart Document in manuals is the possibility of creating only one for an entire line of machines that produces in output several tens or hundreds of finished manuals, according to model variants, version of the product, localization, up to variants by serial number. The Smart Document is the tool that allows you to follow the evolution of the product, and ensure that the communication of information relating to the same is extremely timely and in line with the customer’s expectations.

The creation of Smart Documents correctly is part of the services offered by EKR and its team of consultants. To create high quality Smart Documents, a good competence in the use of the Adobe platform is required – of which EKR is a partner – and EKR allows you to use the fundamental tools of Adobe such as Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign in the best and most integrated way possible. communication flow; this is done with a high level of efficiency and maximum effectiveness.

Legacy systems integration

EKR Orchestra integrates perfectly with SAP ERPs, both R / 3 and S / 4HANA, and with CRM, PLM and other Databases already present in the company, resulting in numerous advantages.

In most EKR Orchestra projects, integration with one or more master systems already present in the company is required with part of the information. 

EKR is perfectly integrated with SAP ERPs, both R / 3 and S / 4HANA, but also with CRM, PLM and other databases in the company.

In the analysis phase – working on the label tree and the hierarchy tree – it is defined whether some information should remain within the previous systems as a master. If this happens it is important that there is a live connection, in real time between the PIM and the master systems. 

Typical cases are pricing, the configuration of the first levels of BOM (Bill of Materials, bill of materials in Italian) which specifies which are the components that build a certain machine or a given product. Another type of integration is the presence and visibility for marketing needs of some products within specific geographical areas. The integration with concepts such as the SAP ERP Sales Organization allows Smart Documents to produce catalogs configured based on the presence or absence of certain items within states in which, for example, there are patent or non-competition constraints with other products.

In some cases the integration of both incoming and outgoing with CRM environments allows, for example, to support the service activity with important information regarding the functional breakdown of the machine, to help the technician logically place a ticket within the structure functional of the same, without having to reinvent names or parts of it that would then not correspond with the real structure. On the other hand, the technician himself can access in real time through the integration made with the EKR platform to all product information, typically distributed before EKR in tens or hundreds of technical documents or manuals, created in PDF format or managed. in Excel, but not accessible in real time.

When a integration is made between these CRM or After-sales platforms and the EKR platform, those involved in After-sales have the possibility to access in real time a set of unimaginable information up to before.

Another integration scenario is the possibility of enhancing the world of preventive maintenance – all the maintenance logic typically formalized only within the maintenance tables of the use and maintenance manuals. All the information contained in these very important parts can be used by downstream systems for the planning of maintenance interventions, ensuring maximum consistency between the data present in the official product documentation – technical manuals delivered to the customer – and the proposals for maintenance plans. which could be provided to the customer, or used as a basis for predictive maintenance processes (industry 4.0).

SERVICE

EKR Orchestra easily integrates into a cross-platform work environment

The EKR Orchestra suite allows you to take full advantage of combining multiple ecosystems.

It harmonises effectively and efficiently different tools such as SAP Hybris, AS400, Websphere, WordPress and Drupal, drawing strengths from each and merging them in a synergistic way for an optimal user experience.

EKR Eprel

A manufacturer of energy-consuming tools must declare the characteristics of what they produce. To meet this regulatory requirement EKR uses EKR Eprel.

Since March 1, 2021, the legislation that imposes the new Energy Labels comes into force.

If you are not up to date with your basic and derivative models, rely on EKR’s proven solution.

The European Commission requires manufacturers of energy-consuming instruments to be compliant with a given regulation: in this regard, the manufacturer must declare the characteristics of what it produces and its level of efficiency, which is combined with an energy class that allows the user to compare products.

Even companies that produce non-mass goods are required to adapt to this legislation and therefore to compare their technical data with the various producers; the European body then certifies that a given product has a more or less convenient energy class than the others.

To allow manufacturers to assign the correct energy class to products, it is necessary to manage a very large set of information that must be sent to the systems of Eurovent, the association of manufacturers of air conditioning and industrial refrigeration systems.

Once the information has been submitted to their systems, the energy class is established and producers are assigned a QR code or an image that allows them to declare that the products are part of a given energy category.

The EKR Eprel module allows you to use EKR Orchestra data to meet this regulatory and industrial need.

Take for example the new label for refrigeration appliances with a direct sales function and see what it exhibits:

I. QR code;

II. brand or name of the supplier;

III. supplier model identifier;

IV. scale of energy efficiency classes from A to G;

V. energy efficiency class;

YOU. annual energy consumption (AE) in kWh per year, rounded to the nearest integer;

VII. for refrigerated vending machines: sum of the net volumes of all compartments at operating temperatures for refrigeration, expressed in liters (l) and rounded to the nearest integer; etc.

VIII. for refrigeration appliances with a direct sales function where all compartments at operating temperature for refrigeration are in the same temperature class, with the exception of refrigerated vending machines:

– temperature in the upper part: the maximum temperature of the hottest M package in the compartment or compartments at operating temperatures for refrigeration, in degrees Celsius (° C) and rounded to the nearest integer, etc.

– temperature in the lower part: the minimum temperature of the coldest M package in the compartment or compartments at operating temperatures for refrigeration, in degrees Celsius (° C) and rounded to the nearest integer, etc.

IX. for all refrigeration appliances with a direct sales function, except vending machines: sum of the display areas at operating temperatures for freezing, expressed in square meters (m2) and rounded to the second decimal place;

X. for refrigeration appliances with a direct sales function where all compartments at operating temperatures for freezing are in the same temperature class, with the exception of refrigerated vending machines:

– temperature in the upper part: the maximum temperature of the hottest M package in the compartment or compartments at operating temperatures for freezing, in degrees Celsius (° C) and rounded to the nearest integer, …

– temperature in the lower part: the minimum temperature of the coldest M package in the compartment or compartments at operating temperatures for freezing, in degrees Celsius (° C) and rounded to the nearest integer, …

XI. the number of the regulation, ie ‘2019/2018’.

An important novelty is the presence of a QR Code that appears directly on the energy label (top right).

The QR Code allows consumers to access additional information with their smartphone. This information is entered by the producers themselves in the Eprel database (European Product Database for Energy Labeling).

Eprel is a registration database in which producers and importers must register all products for which the new energy label is mandatory, including all detailed technical documentation, which can be viewed and downloaded directly from the internet.

Dita structuring

Integration with the DITA standard is one of the highlights of EKR Orchestra, which allows the creation and transformation of information in accordance with it.

The DITA standard, which differs according to geography, is a standard that requires that information be organized in such a way as to respect an internationally predefined xsd scheme. 

The EKR platform includes all the possibilities defined within it and is therefore a tool with which it is possible to receive information from this standard and produce structured information in accordance with it. 

One of EKR’s services is the transformation of unstructured content according to this perspective and this standard, based on the configured scheme that must be made available by the customer or the transformation of content already present in the Information Warehouse for provision of information to the outside, if a company needs to disclose its internal information in accordance with this standard.

Digital transformation

The pervasiveness of digitization now affects every reality. Creating, organizing and managing data while keeping up with change is imperative.

The digital transformation activity is a change management activity.

In the management of product data, both for technical and marketing needs, all companies use methods that have been consolidated over the years. Although they are functional, up to a certain point effective and extremely well-run, according to the way of “doing this for years” has become the reference rule, they are often very inefficient and contain many aspects that can be improved.

However, when business challenges become much larger and more complex in a logic of globalization, the “I’ve always done this” mode begins to shake and be questioned.

The need for a presence in an ever wider number of languages, for a growing segmentation of products and regulations that require ever more precise, more competitive detail and information, force us to adopt a new working method.

It is important that in this path there are sensitive, prepared, flexible consultants, able to support the evolution of entire offices, who are called to start working in a different way; unhinging existing habits is one of the most challenging parts of a digital transformation process.

EKR has gained considerable experience in numerous industrial sectors, heritage of the various consultants who follow the projects, which allows companies to carry out this evolution path in a guided and progressive way, without being invasive. In this way we avoid creating friction and dysfunctions within the company and its offices, with the clear goal of an evolution that always leads the company, in a period of a few months, or even in larger projects. a few years, to arrive at a scenario of greater efficiency and effectiveness. These advantages can be found in the three activities of creation, research and dissemination of product information, in a way that is not even minimally comparable to the artisanal method linked to the tradition of “I’ve always done this”.

Digital transformation

The pervasiveness of digitization now affects every reality. Creating, organizing and managing data while keeping up with change is imperative.

The digital transformation activity is a change management activity.

In the management of product data, both for technical and marketing needs, all companies use methods that have been consolidated over the years. Although they are functional, up to a certain point effective and extremely well-run, according to the way of “doing this for years” has become the reference rule, they are often very inefficient and contain many aspects that can be improved.

However, when business challenges become much larger and more complex in a logic of globalization, the “I’ve always done this” mode begins to shake and be questioned.

The need for a presence in an ever wider number of languages, for a growing segmentation of products and regulations that require ever more precise, more competitive detail and information, force us to adopt a new working method.

It is important that in this path there are sensitive, prepared, flexible consultants, able to support the evolution of entire offices, who are called to start working in a different way; unhinging existing habits is one of the most challenging parts of a digital transformation process.

EKR has gained considerable experience in numerous industrial sectors, heritage of the various consultants who follow the projects, which allows companies to carry out this evolution path in a guided and progressive way, without being invasive. In this way we avoid creating friction and dysfunctions within the company and its offices, with the clear goal of an evolution that always leads the company, in a period of a few months, or even in larger projects. a few years, to arrive at a scenario of greater efficiency and effectiveness. These advantages can be found in the three activities of creation, research and dissemination of product information, in a way that is not even minimally comparable to the artisanal method linked to the tradition of “I’ve always done this”.