When Werner Schick begins working at Uhlmann in 1986, there is not one depart­ment in the company respon­sible for infor­ma­tion tech­nology (IT). “At that time, all we had to support the design depart­ment was a team of three and a single computer to share,” he recalls.

And that’s all it took. In the mid-1980s, digi­tal­iza­tion is only just starting to take its first baby steps. “If some­body else was using the computer, I would write down the program­ming code – that I would subse­quently use to create a drawing – on a piece of paper and type it in later. At Uhlmann, this was how CAD, or computer aided design, started” says Schick.

Today, thirty-six years later, our Group IT has as over 65 employees – not counting trainees, students and free­lancers. Together, they handle a broad range of tasks across the entire group. “No wonder,” says Nicolas Mund­brod, Head of Group IT: “As Uhlmann made huge advances, so did digi­tal­iza­tion: Uhlmann has mean­while evolved into a corpo­rate group with over 2,600 employees, and digi­tal­iza­tion has meant that virtu­ally all our company processes are now infused – both in breadth and depth – with infor­ma­tion tech­nology.”

Virtu­ally all our company processes are now infused – both in breadth and depth – with infor­ma­tion tech­nology.

Nicolas Mund­brod, Director Corpo­rate IT

This change is also reflected in Werner Schick’s daily work routine: In the past, if someone approached him with a problem, he would jot it down in a note­book. Once the problem was solved, he would check it off. “It was pure paper chaos,” says Schick.

It all began with CAD

Schick joins Uhlmann as a mechan­ical engi­neering student. Initially, the “native of Laupheim,” as he puts it, stays with the company for four-and-a-half years and writes calcu­la­tion programs to solve mechan­ical prob­lems. “They were still pretty basic back then, but they helped,” he says. A “first-aid” service that was also sought after by other compa­nies: In 1991, Schick moves to Lieb­herr in Ehingen where his work includes devel­oping a program designed to simu­late the use of a mobile crane, like finding the right spot for such heavy equip­ment.

Click on the . signs to learn more. NB: In recent times, the area of IT secu­rity and data protec­tion has gained enor­mously in impor­tance; it may be under­rep­re­sented in the big picture, but not so in the real world of Uhlmann.

Mean­while, IT is making rapid inroads at Uhlmann: computer-aided design is steadily increasing, SAP is being intro­duced – and Werner Schick’s phone keeps ringing: “In 2000, they asked me if I wanted to come back. At that time, Uhlmann had upgraded from the SAP R/2 version of the ERP-System to SAP R/3, and the team was strength­ened accord­ingly.” For Schick, this was the perfect job, because a “tech scout,” as he calls himself, is inter­ested in any new devel­op­ments. “Sitting around is just not my thing” says the now 61-year-old.

It’s just as well that Uhlmann is a pioneer in SAP as a refer­ence customer at the time. What Schick likes about this ERP system is that it can be used throughout the entire company: “It’s a plat­form for all areas, you achieve excel­lent synergy effects with it, and there is no media disrup­tion when different depart­ments work together”.

Initially, Schick continues to focus on CAD, because, he says: “Without design, you can’t sell anything as a mechan­ical engi­neer. To do that, you have to draw some­thing, manu­fac­ture it, and store it. And this is all controlled and recorded with ERP.” But the next tech­no­log­ical inno­va­tion was not long in coming: the SAP Busi­ness Ware­house, or SAP BW for short. In the early 2000s, Werner Schick teaches himself how to use this Busi­ness-Intel­li­gence tool: Since then, the self-taught expert has been making sure that the data coming in from all corners of the company can also be used by eval­u­ating and visu­al­izing it. “A pie chart says more than the bare numbers,” says Schick.

Contin­uous skills devel­op­ment

As the Uhlmann Group expands, so do the myriad tasks of IT – including those of Werner Schick. About three years ago, the SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC) was added. This makes it possible to visu­alize the most impor­tant key perfor­mance figures from the entire Group and make them compa­rable – even on mobile devices.

A pie chart says more than the bare numbers.

Werner Schick, Appli­ca­tion Consul­tant

At the time Schick also takes on a job in the Corpo­rate Finance & Control­ling depart­ment of the holding company, with whom he has close ties on account of his exper­tise in SAP BW. “That’s when it became clear that things get moving when you’ve got IT on board,” says Schick, who also trained Jacque­line Sárosi, a colleague from the depart­ment, to become a Key User in SAC. Together with her, Schick also trained to become a SCRUM Master and, ever since then, has been a fan of this agile way of working.

It has given way to a ticket that the requester creates in the IT service desk and that is processed on the basis of IT Service Manage­ments (ITSM) (see infobox). Schick thinks it’s better: “Nothing slips between the cracks anymore and every­thing is clearly docu­mented.” He is simply someone who loves progress. And now he’s facing the next change: The active phase of his partial retire­ment has just begun, so more time for moun­tain biking and his dog is within reach. However, he is still taking the upcoming big step in IT with him and will contribute all his expe­ri­ence to the company when it switches to the next SAP version S/4.

 

What actu­ally happens with my request?

 

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IT with strategy