With DALIM ES, Schattdecor optimizes its production workflow while getting everyone in the production chain involved.
Located in Thansau, Germany, in the middle of a Bavarian picture-book landscape halfway between Munich and Salzburg is Schattdecor, founded in 1985 by Walter Schatt. Only a few kilometers away is the beautiful Chiemsee, a lake with an island that is home to the unfinished Herrenchiemsee Palace, built by King Ludwig II and today housing the King Ludwig II Museum.
It’s the perfect location for a company that designs, manufactures, and delivers high-quality decors and products. Schattdecor, and its 2,800 employees from 27 nations at 16 facilities worldwide, supplies customers from a variety of industries. Schattdecor surfaces can be found all over the world: they are used, for example, to cover furniture and laminate flooring and also play an important role in caravan/RV interiors and public spaces.
Schattdecor is successful because they guarantee the same, consistently high quality standards worldwide. They define a worldwide product portfolio and execute work processes, systems and production machines with a “Made by Schattdecor” standard.
While, traditionally, decorative paper coverings have been printed by gravure presses, digital printing is an important addition for Schattdecor to be able to serve all customer needs in the field of surfaces.
Theresa Mücke, a media computer scientist and industrial engineer, is a member of the innovation and process management department. She explains, “There are a several significant trends that have accelerated our investment in digital printers. The machines are very flexible and it allows us to print a large number of short runs during the day”.
Mücke has been playing a significant role in the process of automating the workflow and facilitating the collaboration process between production chain partners. DALIM ES has been playing a key part in this ongoing process. “To advance the digital transformation of our production processes we decided to implement ES,” reports Mücke, who has been involved in the ES project from the onset.
Mücke explains the production workflow scheme and how it will be run with ES: “On the one hand, the soft- proofing feature allows us to manage internal approval processes of customer individual design adjustments even better. On the other hand, we can control our final proofing process on the digital printing machine.”
When completely implemented, ES will be responsible for the entire production workflow on the company’s digital presses. ES enables cross-production process management, connecting business systems to manufacturing. All members of the internal production chain will be completely integrated, from design, to repro, to sales and print.
Schattdecor’s process will be faster since less manual intervention is required, and many tasks can be done digitally by ES.
For example, in the past if a customer wanted to see a decor design before it was printed, Schattdecor delivered hardcopy proofs—analog samples. Perhaps, in the future, DIALOGUE Engine, a component of ES, will be used to send online, collaborative soft proofs in addition to analog samples. These will accelerate internal processes because everyone can receive proofs online and it provides a record of all comments and approvals.
Mücke is convinced that ES will have a considerable positive effect on the workflow. “The automated workflow will be simplified and faster. And, the entire manufacturing process will be less time-consuming and more flexible because of the use of a digital press and the ES workflow,” describes Mücke.
Florian Maier, a former web developer and now part of the team for applications & processes at Schattdecor, has the daily task of taking care of ongoing implementation of ES. He came to Schattdecor as an intern—a working student—and has been involved with the ES project for about two years. “In addition to integrating the interfaces, one of the project’s challenges is to make ES compatible with the other systems used by Schattdecor, such as the SAP business system,” he remarks.
Another challenge is to configure Schattdecor’s in-house software, such as printing forms—making sure the decor designs correctly fit the demands of each customer. “In this respect, a lot has to be replicated or developed in order to adapt ES to our needs”, explains Maier.
Unisolve, DALIM SOFTWARE’s Munich-based sales part- ner, has provided technical support for the installation of ES. Martin Finger from Unisolve that accompanied the project at Schattdecor says the purpose of the project is, “about process optimization. For example, Schattdecor wants to know in real time where any product is in the manufacturing process.”
The project also includes the integration of third-party systems such as SAP, which tracks the inventory and oversees the manufacture of Schattdecor’s products throughout, to invoicing. “We are working on making the interface between ES and SAP as seamless as possible, ensuring that that they both understand each other perfectly,” says Finger.
Schattdecor will initially use ES at their headquarter in Thansau, (Germany)—but that is only the beginning. “We will use the extensive and various range of ES’s functions to support our processes worldwide”, concludes Mücke and Maier.
“Schattdecor, its products, and its manufacturing processes are very special and intriguing. DALIM SOFTWARE is honored to be involved in this project and is providing any support that is needed,” underlines Bertin Sorgenfrey, Director Business Development of DALIM SOFTWARE. “We are excited that ES will play an integral role and happy to offer our experience—and that of our international partner network—in this ongoing process.”