Pelzer creates sound strategy with SAP applications and IBM DB2 on IBM BladeCenter servers

Pelzer Beteiligungsholding GmbH & Co. Systeme KG designs and builds specialist trims, liners and audio insulation fabrics for the automotive industry. These sophisticated products contribute to both a quieter cockpit for passengers and reduced external road noise. With revenues of more than €550 million, some 30 business units on four continents and a workforce of almost 4,000 people, Pelzer, based in Witten, Germany, sells to a global marketplace.

Christoph Naber, Head of Corporate IT for the Pelzer Group, comments, “Before the implementation of SAP software, Pelzer factories used various applications – some developed in-house – for finance, accounting and for materials procurement. The company struggled with data compatibility issues even within the group, and the highly integrated customer supply chains and externally managed inventory common in the automotive industry placed great strain on both the corporate IT department and on business information management.

“As Pelzer grew internationally, reflecting the global marketplace, additional challenges arose: maintaining 24x7 operations, greater ability to provide consolidated reporting internally and to customers, and management of a multi-currency business.”

Driving forwards to SAP software

In the year 2000, Pelzer selected SAP software as the company’s worldwide standard, gradually migrating each operating unit to core applications for finance, accounting, inventory, production and manufacturing processes. There are now almost 450 SAP users.

A critical factor in the choice of SAP software was the desire to support different languages and currencies. After some seven years of successful operation and business expansion, the planned introduction of additional SAP application functionality and new services based on the SAP NetWeaver platform prompted a complete system software and infrastructure reassessment.

Accelerating information delivery

To provide enterprise-class data management capabilities, Pelzer had selected IBM DB2 information management software on Microsoft Windows. The purpose was to place all business data in a single, central store, making it available to SAP and other applications such as portals and workflow processes. Pelzer has recently migrated its applications to IBM DB2 software, ready for the next growth phase.

By implementing a global integration strategy, Pelzer has been able to introduce enterprise portals based on the SAP NetWeaver Portal component: all of the company’s 34 manufacturing locations are able to access the same data, in real time. Non-SAP applications such as just-in-time inventory systems have been connected to the same DB2 database, rapidly and easily, to ensure that all of Pelzer’s systems work from a shared, accurate foundation.

Christoph Naber remarks, “The ease of use of DB2 makes system operation and administration very straightforward, and we save considerably on administration effort compared to other databases. Implementation of in-house developed applications turned out to be remarkably smooth, too, and only on rare occasions was source code modified.

“The DB2 systems are used by everyone from shop-floor workers to the management board. They interact in an efficient way with the hardware platform, which is easy to handle and gives high performance to the database.”

Since start of production, Pelzer has experienced complete data integrity and excellent performance, even though the data volumes have grown by up to 400 per cent.

“The reliability and quality assurance testing prior to upgrading to new versions of DB2 software ensured that the migration to the new version of DB2 was faultless,” says Christoph Naber. “Total system administration workload declines with each successive DB2 release, as greater automation and self-management reduces the need for manual intervention. Greater functionality at lower cost compared with other solutions makes IBM DB2 very competitive.”

Eliminating background noise

Pelzer depends on a relatively small number of highly qualified staff, and being able to assign them to more challenging, productive tasks not only increases the value offered to customers, but also offers greater job satisfaction for employees.

Christoph Naber reports, “With the implementation of the new version of DB2, administration is definitely much easier, and employees don’t have to deal with stultifying manual tasks such as taking inventories or writing checks.”

“Within DB2, the complexity of the data does not affect the ease of usage and the effort of administration,” says Christoph Naber. “The workload for DB2 administrators remains constant even while the amount of data grows, principally because DB2 optimized for SAP software includes advanced, easy to operate archiving and backup functions.”

Cost-efficient corporate progress

To support the expanding SAP application footprint, Pelzer has implemented IBM BladeCenter technology, with Intel processor-based model HS20 and HS21 BladeCenter servers.

IBM System x servers (models 345 and 346) are deployed for IBM Lotus Notes, current SAP and other applications, and data is stored on an IBM System Storage DS4300, managed by IBM Tivoli Storage Manager and IBM Director software.

Christoph Naber remarks, “The Intel Xeon dual-core processor-based IBM System x and BladeCenter servers offer high performance in a very compact and efficient form-factor. The blades are hot-pluggable, so we can quickly remove and replace them for servicing, or plug in new servers as rapidly as we require them.”

He adds, “Intel processors are very cost-efficient when you examine the price-performance rating. The technical leadership from Intel gives us the opportunity to use state-of-the-art technology on IBM BladeCenter servers while retaining compatibility with our previous architecture.”

Heitkämper EDV-Beratung GmbH (HEB), an IBM Business Partner, assisted with design, implementation and configuration of the IBM server and DB2 landscape, and the Pelzer team reports that cooperation was very good. The IBM System x technology supports SAP applications and additional services built on the SAP NetWeaver platform, as well as internal enterprise portal solutions for time recording, capital budgeting and acquisition management, developed by Pelzer technicians or in cooperation with other developers.

IBM Lotus Notes is used globally as the corporate email application and for workflow management; it is also integrated with office productivity applications. Just In Time (JIT) and Just In Sequence (JIS) applications, essential to automotive manufacturing, are in the process of being integrated, and Daimler AG is partnering with Pelzer on a JIT pilot project.

Planning the next journey

With the latest DB2 software firmly in place, Pelzer plans migration to Unicode and implementation of more advanced DB2 functionalities, such as compression and high availability solutions. A failure of the JIS and JIT applications, which rely on DB2, would be very costly for Pelzer, and the high availability features within DB2 offer a robust way to manage risk at low operational costs.

The company is also planning a worldwide rollout of the materials management application from SAP, and the introduction of other new SAP applications at Pelzer facilities in Eastern Europe and America. Many of the existing and future SAP applications will run on the IBM BladeCenter, using VMWare to provide virtual servers.

Christoph Naber concludes, “Since Pelzer is a global player in its business, we need IT suppliers with a thorough understanding of what it means to operate worldwide. Our decisions are based more on facts than on feelings, which is why we have chosen DB2. Based on our experience with IBM, we will take IBM solutions into consideration for future projects.”