Severstal implemented a number of IT projects with the customer service optimization purpose

As stated in the statement of Severstal in November, 2014, the organization of the integrated planning based on SAP APO became one of the important IT projects directed to increase in customer focus. Providing to the client information on the status of readiness of products for shipment became a main objective of the project. It is expected that it will help the buyer to reduce the costs due to more exact planning of receipts of raw materials, and, in turn, will give to Severstal company the chance to get an award to price for products and to compete with other companies in the field of providing high-quality service to the client. Besides, a system allows Severstal to trace bottlenecks and outstanding obligations before the client and quickly to react to them.

System operation is based as follows: the seller (the employee of Severstal) logs into the system, places the order of a specific product, a system reports in what week this order can be made. Further a system calculates readiness dates of semi-finished products taking into account technological limits on all transactions for determination of optimal date of order fulfillment. At the same time, a system calculates and makes check on planned marginality of products.

The project is at a start stage in trial operation of all processes and system modules. At the moment on CherMK five workshops of final repartition are connected to a system.

According to the results of the project the company will be able to provide to clients the guaranteed level of a punctual delivery at a week "window of a promise" (a target measure value of OTIF/On Time In Full (timeliness of delivery and extent of completion) by the end of the year — 85%, now — about 55%), to receive new methods of work with orders (a possibility of determination of the recommended inventory level on work in progress: target value by the end of the year — 21 days) to pass to planning from volumes to orders (to prepare the reporting on a status of execution of the order; manage the level of service for specific clients).

Development of mobile CRM (Customer Relationship Management) — the application providing commission of trade operations from mobile devices (smartphones, tablets) became one more project directed to increase in customer focus. Having installed the application, the client will be able: obtain all necessary information on the ordered products; using the directory, to make out orders, to browse the history of the orders; control on what repartition there is an order (with indication of, when and how many products arrived) — it is shipped or already in the course of delivery; create overall balance of payments and see payment of the specific account; create claims and to quickly keep track of their status; learn contacts of staff of the company, news, certificates on products and other useful information.

The application within this service works on tablets and smartphones running iOS (iPad and iPhone). Scaling of the project is in the short term planned for devices running Android.

By calculations of Severstal, the project will give the chance to reduce costs due to optimization of a back office, to compete with other companies in the field of providing high-quality service to the client.

Besides, the company implemented the complete solution on management of repairs and maintenance by means of mobile devices on the pilot platform — in koprovy and sheet-rolling workshop No. 1. The main objectives of the project became: planning process automation, step-by-step arrangement of personnel and works monitoring on service and repair of the equipment for the purpose of ensuring accomplishment of the strategy of business in the field of repairs directed to management of reliability of the equipment and decrease in number of staff.

According to the company, the project included: software implementation of SAP MRS for planning and purpose of works on an equipment MRO taking into account the diagram of stops of the capital technology equipment, availability and qualification of resources; implementation of a hardware and software system based on SAP Work Manager by Syclo for issue of tasks and accounting of execution of works on service and repair of the equipment, collecting and accounting of indications of the devices and parameters affecting reliability of operation of the equipment using mobile devices.

According to the results of the project all planned works on a MRO form on the basis of process charts in SAP PM, balancing of loading of jobs and arrangement of personnel in SAP MRS is executed, on the mobile device in the automatic mode transfer of replaceable tasks is performed. Thanks to WorkManager SAP application from the mobile device information on the fact of the performed works, the recorded failures and faults with further replanning of a task for future shift is transferred.

On a withdrawal of Severstal, thanks to project implementation the system of maintenance and repairs on the pilot platform in koprovy and sheet-rolling workshop No. 1 became more transparent, planning — more exact. At the same time the share of the auxiliary time spent for work in IT systems was reduced, document flow is optimized, the discipline of execution, quality of data (increased with a growth of their volume), necessary for technical efficiency analysis of a MRO that, as a result, allowed to reduce several times number of the equipment downtimes allowed because of low-quality TO.