Seco delivers tools to the whole world. Because they promise delivery within 24 hours, their systems simply cannot go down. LOAD helped them both safeguard their deliveries and get a monitoring solution that acts quickly on critical events – around the clock.
Seco’s promise to deliver in 24 hours to the whole world means that the monitoring of the company’s global network is absolutely crucial to their business. Unforeseen incidents that go unnoticed or are not remedied put their customer deliveries at risk, along with both the profitability and credibility of the company.
A change was needed – quickly
Just before Easter in 2016, it became clear to Seco that they needed to make an important change, and quickly. Their current supplier of monitoring was not living up to their requirements, and Seco was looking for a partner who could ensure that their systems would never stop.
“If a machine breaks down, our supplier must be able to help us get a spare machine in operation within an hour of the decision being made,” says Jan Danielsson, Senior Systems Engineer and Solution Architect at Seco.
Once they signed a new agreement with LOAD, full monitoring and operation was in place within just 21 working days, a period that also ran over the Easter weekend.
Monitoring of 16 systems was required
Success depended entirely on LOAD’s ability to get everything in place quickly without affecting Seco’s deliveries and business-critical processes. New software was installed to monitor not only the M3 business system, but an entire multi-platform environment with 16 different systems.
Change of business system
At the same time, all of Seco, including their 50 subsidiaries around the world, switched over to one and the same business system.
According to Jan Danielsson, “When everyone works in the same system and uses the same database, we get higher-quality information and increased stability. We also avoid integration problems and minimize the amount of manual work. We had high expectations for this change. At the same time, it was important that the installation did not disrupt operations.”
The whole network in one view
Despite the tight deadline and high demands, everything went well. A tool for advanced visualization of the status of the entire network in a common view (“single pane of glass”) was installed, and more tasks were automated to minimize the need for manual work. Productivity and profitability could be ensured throughout the process.
Jan Danielsson is extremely pleased with the new partnership. “First, LOAD is structured and documents everything very well. We feel safe, even in our personal relationships. We have a designated technician that we can call at any time, we have monthly operating meetings, and seven technicians who work on-call around the clock if something should happen.”
More than just a customer in the crowd
For Seco, it is important not just to be just another customer in the crowd.
“Our experience of working with large organizations is that you as an individual customer can easily drown and are not given as much importance. You simply do not get help quickly. Now, we do. At the same time, our new solution minimizes the amount of manual work with the automated functions. Working with LOAD was definitely the right choice for us,” concludes Danielsson.
SECO FACTS
Seco, located in the Swedish town of Fagersta, is part of the Sandvik Group, and is one of the world’s largest suppliers of comprehensive metal cutting solutions for milling, stationary tools, holemaking and tooling systems. The company has wholly owned subsidiaries in 50 countries and representatives in over 70 countries. They provide their customers with tools and processes that are crucial to customer productivity and profitability.