AVG TECHNIEK SPEAKING
Recently, one of the last business units of the AVG family business, AVG Techniek, switched to Infor Cloudsuite with the commissioning of the Service module and Infor Mobile Service.
No lack of corporate experience at AVG. With its origins in 1920, AVG has seen many a market development. This has brought AVG to a company with over 300 employees based in the Netherlands and Germany. With offices in the Dutch Kaatsheuvel, Velddriel, Heijen and the German Goch, Rheinberg, Duisburg and Beckum, AVG is a renowned player in the market of building materials, recycling, infra, transport and explosives detection. Controlling the various processes was a challenge for AVG. To get a grip on these processes, in the summer of 2021 AVG chose Infor Cloudsuite as its ERP solution and Antaras as its solution provider.
An important reason that AVG Techniek later switched to Infor Cloudsuite is that they will use Infor from start to finish; warehouse management, purchasing, sales flows, invoicing and also the entire service organization. The integration of the processes and integration with the other departments was key in this. Of course, a thorough (research) process preceded this. The project team of AVG Techniek (primarily Paul Kubalek (cooperating foreman workshop) and Joeri Wolfraad (warehouse management and purchasing), together with Stefan van Zinderen (ICT manager and ERP project leader) and supplemented by Ronny van Katwijk from Finance) together with the consultants of Antaras ensured a thorough preparation and processing.
We are talking about this transition with Paul, Joeri, Stefan and Ronnie:
Paul, Joeri and Stefan talk about their experiences regarding the transition to Infor.
"We are proud of what we have achieved, gigantic steps have been taken, together with Michel van Doorn of Antaras. After a dynamic start-up period, Paul and Joeri were eventually appointed as key users and that has been a golden move. Their years of practical experience have been crucial in setting up the system correctly (Paul with his workshop experience and Joeri with his warehouse experience). Infor Mobile Service is now used to register hours and materials, and barcode scanning functionality is used, so nothing needs to be written down on paper anymore. All this information is directly retrievable in the LN service module," says Stefan.
"During the implementation it turned out that we were working from an incorrect inventory list with the result that we decided to redesign the entire warehouse. This did subsequently lead to some delays," says Joeri "Such setbacks in the project did promote togetherness immensely!" Says he laughing. Infor is meant to automate and optimize business processes, but the entire transition and implementation process helped departments get to know each other better and strengthened team spirit. "At first we were working more on islands, now it is a chain of activities as it was meant to be. Also, the whole process has promoted innovation within the team. It has taught us to think differently and to set things up smarter and more efficiently. Of course, this takes time," Joeri explains. "And we're not there yet," Stefan adds. "We are now at 70/80% so there are definitely still steps to take. For example, we still need more structure in the work and we still need more knowledge about the possibilities of the system. In addition, the organization still has to get used to the change, this takes time. It is important that you include the users in the change, that you give answers to their questions and that you keep talking to each other."
"A big advantage of Infor is that it provides more insight. The planning module works very well: repairs are completed sooner because everything is planned and purchased in advance and the necessary materials are there on time," Paul said.
For the finance department, it is very positive that AVG Techniek now also works with Infor. Ronnie explains that much more control is possible because Techniek now works with purchase orders. "This makes allocating and approving invoices time-saving and much easier! We have better control of the process now and if we can move to real-time matching soon then the process will be completely optimal." Ronnie indicates that it has been a huge challenge for Paul and Joeri. After all, the Technology Department is the service provider of choice for all the other AVG business departments. Therefore, to involve all the departments in the implementation of the Engineering Department has been a challenge. He gives the gentlemen great compliments for how they picked it up. "This piece of integral change management is just complicated for AVG," said Ronnie.
All four gentlemen indicated that they would not want to go back to the old "stand-alone" system.
Stefan looks back proudly on the entire Infor Cloudsuite journey he started in 2021. Where AVG had to get to know Infor, Antaras had to get to know AVG as an organization but also the AVG processes. This has led to a special partnership where AVG greatly appreciates the short lines of communication with Antaras. "Looking to the future, we want to use the system even more and better. Engineering is busy with a maintenance plan (not only for the trucks but also for the machines), we want to integrate this into the system. We are also thinking about linking machines via IOT in order to plan maintenance in advance. And we want to start using the new Infor version from April with which we can start using the rental module, especially because of the possibility of anonymous articles. That works a lot easier than it does now.
Step by step, together with Antaras, we will proceed with Infor, and we look forward to the future with confidence," Stefan said.
ABOUT AVG:
AVG provides services in the areas of Infra, Construction Materials, Transportation and Explosives Detection:
AVG BAU provides services in the field of above and underground infrastructure. Ground, road and hydraulic engineering in the broadest sense of the word. From demolition work, soil remediation, large-scale earthmoving, the construction of roads, paving, sewage systems, preparing building sites from homes to large distribution centers, the layout of residential areas and the construction of industrial sites.
AVG Building Materials is a certified supplier that supplies not only Baublocks but also concrete (mortar), cement, sand, gravel, waste containers, mobile screens, rubble crushers and much more construction and raw material equipment.
AVG Transport handles logistics of construction materials, among other things, for a wide range of national and international clients. The working area of AVG Transport is the Benelux and Germany.
As part of the AVG companies, AVG Explosieven Opsporing Nederland is CS-OOO and CS-VROO certified and has been working in the field of detecting explosive remnants of war (conventional explosives) since 1999.