Customer Story - BASF
"The collaboration with the consultants was excellent. The fact that we got on so well meant that we were always able to make wonderful progress. The team was incredibly productive. It's a great benefit when the chemistry is right."
Ute Neuenschwander
Ute Neuenschwander
Manager Planning and Reporting
About the company
BASF's Mobile Emissions Catalysts business unit is a leading global supplier of catalysts and filtration solutions. It provides outstanding expertise in the development of cutting-edge, patented technologies to protect the air and develops unique catalysts that help customers to be even more successful.
Mobile Emissions Catalysts from BASF
The initial situation
With a quantity forecast from the supply chain, actual data in SAP, and a cumbersome Excel contribution margin calculation, we were suboptimally positioned in the fast-paced catalyst market. We wanted a flexible planning tool that could compare large datasets and permanently store specific calculations, such as the determination of precious metal revenues. Projections based on past performance were unsuitable for our needs.
The Highlights
The most important things for me were a clear concept and excellent collaboration with the consultants. And of course, the fact that the software made exactly what we wanted possible. The master tree concept is convincing; forecast and actual data are merged via the key fields, and data import runs through an Access database with numerous preliminary plausibility checks. QlikView enables us to perform quick and easy ad-hoc analyses.
The Lessons Learned
A sound concept is essential when digitizing processes. However, it's also crucial to actively involve employees in the digitization process and the associated changes. Because no matter how smart digital processes may be, expertise, know-how, reliability, and diligence are still necessary to ensure data quality and, consequently, the meaningfulness of the data for controlling purposes.