In 2015, the World Economic Forum popularized the concept of the “Fourth Industrial Revolution,” also known as “Industry 4.0.” The first industrial revolution mechanized production using water and steam power. The second embraced electricity, enabling assembly lines and mass production. The third entailed large-scale adoption of computers and automation. This “Fourth Industrial Revolution,” according to the WEF, would be the stuff of science fiction: smart and autonomous systems powered by data and machine learning.
About five years ago, the team at Enerfab began asking themselves how to position the company for this impending future. As leaders in fabrication, construction and maintenance for industrial engineering across a variety of verticals — including power, chemical, oil and gas, water/wastewater and heavy industrial — they needed to rethink their legacy approach.
“We were building our five-year plan, and we knew technology was going to play a major role in everything that was to come. We had to ask ourselves, ‘How will technology help us fulfill the next generation of customer needs?’” said Rajesh Kapoor, vice president of information technology at Enerfab. “We knew that to be resilient, stay relevant and keep growing, our shop and field operation tools had to improve the quality and speed of our data. That way, we could continue making meaningful and effective business decisions going forward.”
An Inside-Out Approach
Enerfab began its transformation journey with a clear goal in mind: creating an open and collaborative exchange of information between its employees and its customers.
“We knew transparency and visibility would be key to what we wanted to build,” Kapoor said. “Our goal was not just to enable our success, but that of our customers as well.”
That’s when Enerfab began implementing SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP) at various plants across the country. The unified, business-centric, open platform for the SAP ecosystem positioned the company to build interactive applications that would help future-proof its operations. SAP BTP’s application programming interface (API) capabilities also unlocked the accuracy and speed inherent in automation, enabling Enerfab to easily talk to customers, vendors and third-party systems.
At first, the successes were internal. For instance, the shop floor used to see a seven-day lag period before labor hours could be integrated with overall project cost. On their new apps, the data was available by 11 a.m. the next day. Supervisors could also utilize real-time data to see who was working on what and dispatch people in real-time. All while meeting union rules, ensuring accurate payroll and more.
Little did they know, these improvements would quickly lead to a pleasant surprise for Enerfab’s customers as well.
A Portal to the Future
“When we started our transformation project,” Kapoor said, “we never imagined we’d be able to build a comprehensive and integrated customer portal along the way. We thought it would just be for the shop floor.”
However, with the applications Enerfab built on SAP BTP, customers are now able to decide — in real-time and with all the information they could need — how to approach their project and how they want to move forward. They can see items like number of hours spent, total cost on various parts of the project, project budget versus actual cost, and much more. They can even see 15-21 days into the future when it comes to cost, thanks to Enerfab’s advanced tools.
“We can show them what they’ll be paying — and what they’ll be paying for — well before we even start billing anything,” Kapoor said. “That clarity and vision is so essential.”
One power-generation industry customer, for instance, has embraced multi-level approvals for field timesheets . Since their projects are time- and material-based, this means they can easily review the project’s progress and sign off on the necessary approvals.
“We started with a simple focus on time and attendance,” Kapoor said. “Today, we’ve scaled into multiple shops with touchscreens and IPADs running BTP and more — and worked with customers to improve integration, transparency and communication at every single touchpoint. This is truly built to transform every part of the company and everyone we interact with.”
A Partnership Built to Last
The solutions Enerfab built on top of SAP BTP didn’t just solve business problems and transform processes. They offered business insights that were previously unattainable using its legacy approach. This is only going to get more powerful as time goes on, noted Kapoor – particularly as the organizations plots its move into the cloud.
“Whether we’re upgrading our ERP systems, expanding our business or dealing with some kind of disruption, we now have a foundation that can help us exceed well into the future.”
Because, ultimately, whatever industrial machinery Enerfab’s team is fabricating, constructing or maintaining — including cold-form tank heads, of which they are the largest supplier in the country — their technology foundation is poised to give them answers to any questions and solutions to any problems.
“SAP understood the context of our business and the technology trends in our market,” Kapoor said. “They got the context right so that we could get the content right.”
