Success Story

KSB on the Way to the Digital Factory

KSB, one of the leading suppliers of pumps and valves, uses Fabasoft Approve to digitize business processes across plant boundaries.

7,700+

hours saved per year

350+

suppliers working with Approve

year ROI for pilot plant roll-out

With Approve, we can process complex special documentation in a transparent, effective, and user-friendly way. Complicated review and approval procedures are handled securely, reliably, and traceably on a single platform.
Christian Strobl Operative Purchasing Pumps & Systems Pegnitz, KSB SE & Co. KGaA View webinar recording

Complete documentation management in one system

Full overview

Everyone involved has a full overview of the scope of documentation, deadlines, approvals, etc. at all times. Any changes from the first to the last revision can be retrieved as required.

Efficient Collaboration

Annoying e-mail traffic is a thing of the past. Suppliers are integrated into the processes and work just like the internal employees with the browser-based software. This ensures a Single Source of Truth.

Accelerated processes

Automated review and revision processes enable fast feedback and shorter turnaround times. A bidirectional SAP interface makes it easy to continue existing processes.

Lean processes

All processes are adapted to KSB's requirements. Thanks to the significant reduction in routine tasks and the high degree of automation, KSB saves 7,700 working hours per year.

Better customer orientation

KSB achieves improved service through increased quality and short turnaround time. Automated deadline tracking ensures that documents are delivered error-free and on time.

Risk minimization

Automated reminders support the timely transmission of documents and thus contribute significantly to reducing penalties for delay. This not only pleases KSB, but also its suppliers.

The challenge: Manually collecting technical documents

Dimensional drawings, 3D models, and approvals must be obtained from suppliers in time and need to be reviewed and approved by different departments. Previously, information was exchanged via e-mail with attachments without a clear filing structure. This resulted in a high manual effort to search for documents, time-consuming communication through different channels and numerous correction loops due to missing information.

The result: Integrating the suppliers into the processes

Approve provides a unified system for document exchange with transparent and streamlined processes.

The challenge: Reducing the manual effort required to create test plans

In order to meet KSB Group's high quality standards, a wide range of different tests must be carried out and documented. To this end, the QCP (Quality Control Plan) is created on an order-by-order basis, coordinated with the customer, and adapted as necessary. Previously, the many media discontinuities (Microsoft Excel, SAP, e-mail, etc.) made internal and external communication extremely time-consuming. Checking the quality certificates and sending them to SAP generated an unnecessarily high manual effort.

The result: Digital end-to-end QA process with interfaces to SAP

With Approve, creating Quality Control Plans takes just a few clicks. There is now an end-to-end workflow for certificate inspection that also includes suppliers.

The challenge: High administrative effort when transmitting customer documentation

Complete documentation is essential for project completion in mechanical engineering. As the documents at KSB came from different data sources, merging them, adapting them to the customer's requirements, and sending them used to involve a great deal of manual effort.

The result: Fully automated generation of transmittals

With Approve, the creation of transmittals and customer-specific cover sheets is fully automated. The seamless connection of different systems provides a better overview of all documents, deadlines, approvals, etc. relevant to the order.