SUPPLY CHAIN
Schulties was quickly identified as the right person to run procurement in North America . Following his appointment , Giancarlo Angelini joined the company from the Fiat Group as Chief Procurement Officer , based in Milan , bringing a vision of how to leverage the complex global commodities and legacy companies that went to make up the merged group .
Among the large tasks which have faced the organization over this period , consolidation and rationalization of IT platforms has been one of the biggest challenges . The group has been a long term SAP client , but this is not as straightforward a picture as it may seem at first , as different versions of SAP are still being operated in different segments of the business . At group level , the strategy is to migrate all the businesses to SAP One Client , and the Prysmian high volume cables part of the business has already migrated to this platform , accounting for some 80 percent of the group . However the plants of Draka Elevator , Draka
Automotive and others including the Cableteq division , remain under earlier versions of SAP . “ This is still a work in progress ,” says Schulties . “ We will be rolling SAP One Client out at our Cableteq division in January 2018 – these are very specialized businesses , handling very large numbers of different parts and raw materials .” The side of the business that supplies highly specialized clients in industries such as nuclear , defense , airport lighting and the like has many requirements that set it apart from the high volume work . “ Some of the cables these customers specify may only be 1,000 feet in length , compared to the transmission lines the Prysmian factories are turning out on huge drums or reels .” Nevertheless , whether customized or bulk , volumes have been exploding in most of the territories . Fiber optic is a case in point , he points out . “ Fiber is an exponentially growing business , both in terms of volume and complexity . We are constantly innovating as higher fiber counts , different fiber and different
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