CREALIS® aids global distribution

BRECO Antriebstechnik Breher GmbH & Co. KG is providing its sales partners with a product configurator available online worldwide

BRECO ANTRIEBSTECHNIK BREHER GMBH & CO. KG

Founded in 1967, the company is now regarded worldwide as the most innovative producer in the field of polyurethane timing belt technology. The toothed belts produced at the Porta Westfalica site with 250 employees are distributed internationally by more than 20 sales partners. With several product lines for a wide range of applications, BRECO offers individually configurable drive belts and timing belt pulleys.

THE TASK

To efficiently and easily assemble an individual product from a wide range of configuration options with a significant increase in the number of variants in the assemblies, the price calculation software used by the manufacturer for special belts reached its technical limits. The data update and price calculation of 35,000 items — with more than 10,000 additional objects — in one product group alone was no longer manageable with the exclusively locally installed application. BRECO was therefore looking for a web-based configuration solution that would enable the sales department to easily assemble a product from various components and to calculate the price quickly and in accordance with the specifications

THE PROCESS

Rapid implementation thanks to productive and transparent collaboration and flexible software interfaces The basis for the project was a three-day pilot workshop in which configuration experts from ORISA and BRECO employees defined all project requirements and developed concrete solution strategies. A crucial decision was the use of the standard product configurator CREALIS®, with which the modelling of the logic was realised on the part of ORISA. Thanks to the adaptation of the interfaces to the production system used by BRECO and the extremely cooperative collaboration, the process of accepting the master and article data into the PDM of the CREALIS® software was quick and uncomplicated. The graphical user interface of the configurator was consistently implemented in line with the specifications of the BRECO corporate design using JSP, HTML and CSS. After only six months, it was possible to present the first fully functional version. With the completion of the subsequent four-month implementation phase, the use of the product configurator was released for all sales partners worldwide.

THE OUTCOME

A reliable tool for product configuration and price determination After a mere ten months on the project, BRECO is in possession of a powerful and easy-to-use configurator that is available online to partner companies worldwide and around the clock. The system assists with finding items with an intelligent search function and guides you through the configuration, where components are added to the selected items. The technical feasibility is checked synchronously. The final price is determined even during the configuration process, so that the sales department can pass on the actual prices for changes to the product components or features directly and reliably to the customer. Thanks to the save and export functions, finished configurations can be quickly and easily saved as a document, printed out and sent by e‑mail. Conclusion: An online product configurator that wins over BRECO partner companies worldwide. The comprehensive support in assembling a product from various components with automatic, error-free price calculation makes CREALIS® a powerful sales tool. With the integrated, permanent control of technical permissions in the configuration process and the simple integration of new products, CREALIS® is a comprehensive sales solution for BRECO.

THE OUTLOOK

After the project is before the project Feedback from BRECO sales staff after the configurator went live opened up further potential for optimisation and adaptation for daily use of the software. Thus, the performance and usability of the configurator was further improved, which made it possible to broaden the user base considerably. Revising the layout of print documents makes customer and sales presentations even more convincing. In addition, the complex price calculation of the configurator was adapted for international sales. Factors that significantly influence a reliable price determination, such as product-specific conversion factors and variable customer discounts, are now taken into account. Thanks to the modular structure of the configurator, future measures for adaptation and optimisation can also be implemented easily and in a targeted manner.

”With the new configurator, we bring production even closer to the customer and can customise products and sales.”

- Dr. Jürgen Vollbarth, Managing Director of BRECO GmbH & Co. Zahnscheiben KG

THE PROJECT IN FIGURES

35.000

Items in the “Toothed belts” product group

10.000

Additional objects for price calculation

20

Nationally and internationally operating sales partners

6

Months until the first fully functional CREALIS® version.

10

Months until worldwide commissioning

THE CUSTOMER BENEFITS AT A GLANCE

Online product configurator for the worldwide optimisation of sales processes
Simple, fast and reliable quote generation
Fully functional products based on valid buildability rules
Simple operation and content maintenance without programming knowledge
Final price calculation as early as during the configuration process
Access to customer-specific and practical knowledge