Section 16.5. ESA in action: TRW

16.5. ESA in action: TRW

Another example of a company using Java in its ESA implementation is TRW Automotive. TRW ranks among the world's leading automotive suppliers.

As a $12-billion-a-year business employing approximately 63,000 people in 25 countries, TRW is constantly looking for ways to improve product and process efficiency. To this end, TRW uses the Six Sigma Initiative to improve customer satisfaction, the quality of its business processes and products, and its methods of launching new products. TRW also employs the Six Sigma Initiative to create a culture capable of continuous process improvement.

TRW's Airbag Systems Group sought to simplify and automate its factory floor inventory and resupply procedures at its plants in Aschau and Laage, Germany, with the application of information logistics. They launched a Six Sigma "Black Belt" project that sought to identify redundancies and otherwise inefficient efforts in their supply chain. The project aimed to reconcile data from planning, ERP, Supply Chain Management (SCM), and factory floor applications into a single, integrated solution. Through this effort, TRW hoped to give floor personnel a real-time view of inventory and an automated resupply process. This would not only eliminate errors, but also drive down inventory costs by increasing consumption efficiency.

When it came time for implementation, the solution was to create a composite application automating this process using a variety of SAP NetWeaver components, including SAP Web Dynpro and homegrown enterprise services. The services allow the composite application to collect real-time data from the Unix-based production line host on the factory floor. That data is then passed to floor operators who monitor inventory levels, consumption patterns, and the time remaining until resupply is necessary. These operators know at a glance whether and when their production line will need to resupply, and they can order through the interface with two mouse clicks (if they choose to control the process on their own; usually, the process is completely automated).

TRW built this process with the help of the IT solution provider, znt-Richter, a German specialist for SAP NetWeaver technologies. The composite application maps the business process flow between the underlying systems, which include SAP R/3 and Unix-based inventory and production line systems. Each of these is linked via SAP NetWeaver Exchange Infrastructure (XI) to an SAP NetWeaver AS, which uses EJBs to wrap the business logic. SAP NetWeaver Portal provides the interface.

The project was TRW's first encounter with enterprise services, and company executives expect the results to be impressive, taking into account everything from productivity gains to reduced overtime. One of the lessons learned was the clear need for scalable and open technology platforms that will allow future efforts to develop at their own pace without architectural constraints. The company is confident that its enterprise services-enabled solution is flexible and scalable enough to link and add new plants to its solution and to adapt it to product development and external logistics processes. The combination of Six Sigma methodology and enterprise services-enabled solutions appears to be a key to real effectiveness gains.