Egetürk: Faster and error-free order picking with EDI

With the IBM i-based solution i‑effect^® from menten, the leading producer of Turkish sausages and meat products automates its communication with key accounts.

The production of sucuk, the typical garlic sausage, began in 1966. Today, the Cologne-based company Egetürk supplies countries throughout Europe and beyond with its product range, which now comprises 49 articles. This requires sophisticated logistics with wholesalers, flanked by modern IT. The Egetürk Wurst- und Fleischwarenfabrikation GmbH & Co. KG recently started using EDI technology from its external IT partner menten GmbH. In the meantime, an order app is also in use, which quickly gained popularity among wholesalers.

Egetürk moves with the times and sees itself as a quality leader and technical pioneer in all areas, be it its own production and quality assurance processes or the technical substructure in the form of modern IT solutions. menten GmbH has been the external IT department of Egetürk for over 30 years. Two days a week a specialist is on site to ensure that hardware and software interact and are up to date. In mid-2018, a new project for EDI transmission was created out of the desire to simplify the acceptance of orders. The main theme was the communication with a large European food retail chain. Egetürk supplies the company's central warehouses from Cologne. The customer generates the orders from his merchandise management system and currently still transmits them traditionally by fax. Koray Dagli, Sales Manager at Egetürk: "The company purchases a total of eleven of our products. Each order comprises around 35-40 articles on several pages, which we then had to manually transfer into our merchandise management software in the sales department. The ordering system of the customers is strictly organized, there are e.g. order numbers, delivery dates and other information which we absolutely must record in our system, otherwise there are problems with the goods acceptance." Since there are occasional errors here, the menten GmbH suggested the installation of an EDI transmission of orders. In this way, the entire paper chaos of faxes and copies can be avoided.

"Bye-bye" fax order

"In the summer i‑effect^® was installed at Egetürk, the solution of menten GmbH for electronic data exchange and data integration on IBM Power System. It simplifies incoming orders enormously, as every order from the retail chains is automatically processed in the merchandise management software. Nothing more has to be entered manually, the fax machine remains mute, at least with the order data of this customer. Koray Dagli: "All we have to do now is check the order value, release the order immediately and start the calculation. The delivery note is created with a further mouse click." The new procedure was coordinated with the customer's IT department. The retailer had specified the communication module AS2 as the desired protocol; the ORDERS (orders) are transmitted in the EDIFACT standard format. The EDI converter i‑effect^® converts the incoming EDIFACT messages into the XML format that can be processed by the Egetürk merchandise management system. The result: no more incorrect data entries, which in turn improves data quality. This accelerates the entire transaction process because no work has to be repeated, and Egetürk can serve its customers faster. Mapping, i.e. adapting the data (e.g. removing leading zeros, changing the date format, rounding...) so that it fits into the format of the ERP software, is done by menten for Egetürk as a service.

Every customer orders differently

"Every customer orders differently," says Koray Dagli. "Some send e-mails, some fill out our order forms and send them by fax, others use the forms of their own software, many already order from their smartphone. As different as the incoming messages are, it is just as time-consuming for Egetürk to enter all orders into its ERP software. "We want our goods to be picked within three to four hours, and of course that doesn't work if the orders are entered incorrectly in the system from the outset. This is difficult to correct later. That's why electronic transmission is so advantageous for us, because all orders are recorded automatically, correctly and above all quickly," says Dagli.

Because not every wholesaler knows what EDI is - let alone would be willing to set up an infrastructure for sending EDI messages - Egetürk has thought about another technical tool that can be used to channel and simplify ordering processes: the app "Egetürk Dealers", developed by menten and available in iTunes and Google Play Store since autumn 2018. Every dealer can download them for free and place his orders with them.

"Appification" has arrived in the meat wholesale trade

The process of ordering an app is as follows: As soon as the order arrives, the salesperson can check the transmitted data again via an interface and then load it into the ERP system using the "Import" command. This completely eliminates the need for manual feeding - a great relief. 15% of the customers tested the app as testers in the first weeks. This enabled Egetürk to gain initial experience and check in the system whether all sales are correctly recorded and booked. From the beginning of 2019, Egetürk will increasingly advertise the app to its customers so that as many people as possible can use it in the future. It can also be used as a browser-based variant for PCs/notebooks, so anyone who does not like working on their mobile phone or ordering can do so in future simply via the Egetürk website. "This is easier for both sides," says Koray Dagli, who is proved right by the positive reaction of the customers. In the customer's own warehouse, the barcode scan function integrated into the app enables the customer to scan products more quickly, which further simplifies ordering. Egetürk delivers about 100 tons of meat every day. Since using the EDI interface and app, the meat and sausage producer has not shipped a single faulty quantity. At present, consideration is being given to also using EDI for communication with the customer. Delivery notifications are to be introduced as so-called DESADVs. At the same time, the customer is notified of the electronic delivery note (which currently still comes with the goods in paper form). This allows the customer to see in advance in what condition the pallet will arrive and to simplify his warehouse planning.

The company

Egetürk was founded in 1966 by Burhan Öngören and is today one of the most important sausage and meat producers in Germany. Production takes place on a production area of 63,000 m² in Cologne-Feldkassel. With a total capacity of 150 tons of sausages per day, hygiene standards have the highest priority in every production phase. Since its foundation, the company has grown steadily in terms of number of employees, turnover, production area and product range.

2004 Egetürk carried out the automation with the acquisition of a modern machine park. The integration of ten new slicers increased capacity to 80 tonnes of cuttings per day. Together with other investments, the processing capacity of the plant was increased to 150 tons of meat products per day. This makes Egetürk one of the leading food producers in Germany.

Burhan Öngörens nephew, Ahmet Eden (managing director) continues the company now in 2nd generation.

Challenges

Egetürk receives order orders from its customers in various forms: by fax, e-mail, from mobile phones. Entering the data into your own ERP system is time-consuming and error-prone. That is why Egetürk wanted to digitize and automate communication in his ordering system.

Solutions

i‑effect^®, the solution from menten GmbH for electronic data exchange and data integration on IBM Power System, receives incoming EDIFCAT messages from the major customer, converts them into a format readable by the Egetürk ERP software and automatically plays them into the system. The provision of an app opens the way to electronic ordering for wholesalers without an EDI infrastructure.

Benefit

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