With the use of the solution, the company is stimulating the Digital Transformation process, in addition to having registered a 102% increase in revenue from new products in 2020.
Buschle & Lepper, a Brazilian producer and distributor of chemical products and agricultural inputs, restructured its Research and Development (R&D) process and increased revenue in new products with the support of the SoftExpert Suite, a corporate solution for the integrated management of compliance, innovation and Digital Transformation.
Challenges
With the organization’s newly structured R&D sector, the main challenges were to standardize the registration of new ideas, improve communication between the sectors involved and manage changes in the product development process.
According to Eduardo Spitzner, CIO at Buschle & Lepper, the company was at a pivotal moment, with old systems that didn’t allow the integration of sectors.
“At the time, the department was still restructuring itself, but we realized that it was lacking an assertive and robust technological support that could sustain this new operation. We also realized that we were going to need some peripheral solutions to be able to address the demands and expectations that we had in a more targeted way. Before, the entire control of the area was in Excel spreadsheets. We needed to evolve,” said Spitzner.
Arthur Yendo, Commercial Manager at SoftExpert highlighted that the relationship with Buschle & Lepper started in 2018, when the company was looking for integrated tools.
“There were a lot of disconnected systems, each area had a different methodology and platform,” he said. “The technical product descriptions, for instance, were found in informal documents.”
According to Yendo, it was necessary to better structure the logistics of the departments.
For both – Buschle & Lepper and SoftExpert, the ideal solution was the Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) suite. The system uses IT tools to create a kind of collaborative database, which allows managing the entire lifecycle process of any product.
Ease and Integration
Spitzner highlights some differentials that were important for choosing the solution, such as dynamic platform, ease of use, availability of nominal and floating licenses, integration with other systems, autonomy to configure and customize the tool, in addition to the possibility of purchasing interconnected modules.
“The way the suite was written, based on best practices with certifications widely used by the market and interconnected modules, brought a wide spectrum of solutions and possibilities,” said Spitzner.
According to the CIO, when the company began to see the world of PLM working, it was a very pleasant surprise. “It’s like Lego or a puzzle that you can assemble and make a specific solution. Now we have several interconnected sectors,” he said.
Results achieved
For Spitzner, the consolidation of the platform in the R&D sector shows important results for the organization, which in 2020 doubled the sales of new products, compared to 2019, an increase of approximately R$ 8 million. During the same period, approximately 100 new ideas related to product development were also registered in the system.
“Our experience with the tool has been very positive, as we were able to automate and standardize several processes, obtain more engagement among those involved, in addition to improving project control and reducing chances of errors,” he said. “Through the tool, it was also possible to create performance indicators in the R&D sector.”
In addition, the CIO added that greater agility in the processes was observed.
Spitzner said: “If it weren’t for the implementation of this system, it would take us much longer to complete any task. We were wasting a lot of energy to bring up just a few results. We managed to evolve a lot in a short time. We are having great successes and recognition.”
Marcelo Becher, Business Analyst, SoftExpert, said: “A reduction is expected in relation to man vs work hours. Once you have the entire platform structured, the life execution of a process becomes simpler. Information arrives quickly, at the right time, to the right person and in an appropriate way.”
Other demands met by the corporate solution
In the chemical products market for 78 years, Buschle & Lepper, which has 10 units in the south and southeast of Brazil, operating throughout the national territory and several countries around the world, plans to expand the use of the solution in the company.
In addition to the results in the R&D area, the Industrial Maintenance sector is also evolving. Now, with the automation of performance indicators, carried out through the integration between the suite and the company’s ERP, it is possible to monitor in real time all preventive and corrective maintenance activities, perform financial management efficiently and obtain more control over the evaluation of ideas generated by employees.
In addition, to improve the management of on-going projects, as well as their prioritization, the company is implementing the Portfolio, Project, APQP-PPAP, PDM and Process components, which will help in the recording of activity hours.
“We already have the system in place, but that’s not why we’re going to stop evolving. We are evaluating some indicators and action plans that will be put into practice,” concluded Spitzner.
The expectation is that, still in 2021, the Action Plan and Audit components will also be applied and used in all of the group’s branches.
About Buschle & Lepper
Buschle & Lepper has been operating since 1943 with excellence in the manufacture, distribution and sale of chemical and agricultural products. The company serves all of Brazil, with units in the states of Santa Catarina, Paraná, Rio Grande do Sul and São Paulo. The products are present in more than 23 states and 758 Brazilian municipalities, with more than 12,000 active customers.
With a pioneering spirit recognized worldwide, the company develops the extraction of magnesium in the form of oxides, hydroxides and carbonates, being used in chemical, pharmaceutical, food and cosmetic industries. Buschle & Lepper products can be found in the United States, Germany, Italy, Singapore, Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela.
Seeking to stand out in the market, the company has a personalized delivery system with its own fleet, ensuring safety and speed in product distribution.
About SoftExpert
SoftExpert is the market leader in solutions for management excellence, providing software and services to improve business processes, regulatory compliance and corporate governance.
Founded in 1995 and currently with over 2,000 customers and 300,000 users around the world, SoftExpert solutions are used by companies of all sizes and industries, including manufacturing, government, pharmaceuticals, hospitals and laboratories, financial services, education, energy and utilities, logistics, retail and services.
Together with its network of national and international partners, SoftExpert offers implementation, training, hosting, validation, support and technical assistance services, in order to ensure that its customers always obtain the maximum return on their investments.
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