IBS specialists normalized more than 170 thousand items of the TMK nomenclature directory

2020: Normalization of Directory Items

On January 15, 2020, IBS announced that its specialists had normalized more than 170 thousand items of the nomenclature directory purchased by the Pipe Metallurgical Company (TMK). The project team combined two information systems - TMK and the Volzhsky Pipe Plant (VTZ), formed a single methodology for maintaining the directory, developed a classifier and templates for the formation of names, and identified critical purchased nomenclature. This allowed the company to reduce the labor costs of working with a large amount of data, minimize accounting errors and more efficiently manage resources.

TMK enterprises maintained two manuals to record the purchased goods necessary for current activities, including production. Due to the difference in internal requirements, doubles and inaccuracies accumulated in the bases. To improve the quality of business processes, it was necessary to combine directories, normalize records and bring them to a standardized type. IBS specialists had to develop a unified methodology and approaches to maintaining the nomenclature, types of materials and valuation classes. In addition, it was necessary to identify and allocate in the total volume of procurement the nomenclature "critical products" of qualified suppliers, participating in the production and requiring a special approach.

The project took 12 months. At the first stage, the IBS team conducted a quality analysis data for errors caused by decentralized maintenance of the product directory in two information systems of the company. In this work, all enterprises Russian of the TMK division, using for, participated. account system SAP ERP Based on the results of the stage, the project concept was formed, the owner of the combined handbook was approved, approaches to change were agreed. business processes

At the second stage, the IBS team developed a normalization methodology, regulations for maintaining the nomenclature directory and the product classifier, taking into account the requirements applied to previously used groups of materials. Material type determination rules have been generated depending on the class selected. For each class, valid units of measure and target material types are defined, data structuring templates are created and agreed upon, as well as rules for automatic generation of names taking into account the peculiarities of the TMK ERP system. To maintain the current methodology for accounting for materials, an expert group was created, which included representatives of all enterprises participating in the project.

The unification of data on materials and values that the company buys allows you to maintain objective records and more effectively manage TMK resources. Thanks to a single nomenclature, our enterprises can more accurately assess their needs and plan purchases, taking into account stocks in other departments. The general rules will also significantly reduce the labor costs when working with the analysis of procurement data, and in the future will contribute to their integration with other digital systems that are being implemented to manage the production of TMK, including with the integrated planning system (PIS), "said Ilia Zyryanov, Director of Supply Chain Management at TMK.

The IBS team normalized 150 thousand items, as well as an additional 23 thousand directory items that arose during the project. A duplicate item was identified and the deduplication process was described, incomplete and incorrectly described items were defined. As of January 2021, normalized data are operated in the TMK production system. As the main tool for working with data, our own development was used - the product "IBS Normalization," which is based on machine learning technology. This system has demonstrated good capabilities in the organization of design work, especially in conditions of forced self-insulation, remote work of experts and employees of IBS and TMK, noted Evgeny Antropov, director of the IBS master data management department.