ERP connection for feedback stations

A future-investment: Digitalization & sustainability in the industry

The Siegerland-based company König + Co. GmbH is specialized in the industrial production of heads. Various workstations are needed in the production process of the heads. The feedback concerning working time of the employees and the running time of the machines is essential for the correct recording of the production process. Previously, this data was documented manually using printed forms, which is not only time-consuming but also consumes a large amount of paper.

In order to make this process more efficient and sustainable, an application was implemented in a project between CONZE and König that communicates with an existing ERP system and serves as a feedback platform at the required workstations. The front end was installed on permanently installed desktop PCs under Windows and is controlled by the users via touch operation. Employees can log in by using an RFID chip.

4.2 We already prepared something: DASPA Framework as the basis for individual development

What makes this project so special, and we are very pleased about this, is that CONZE was able to provide a customized solution for König in a very short time: Based on the in-house DASPA framework, an extension (frontend and backend) could be provided quickly, with which information from the ERP system could be read and processed via the given REST API. The DASPA extension has also been built to run 24/7 and can always be expanded with new features.

4.3 Tight timing with outstanding results – system running!

The first phase of front-end development included a screen design that visualized the flow of the new application and served as basis for implementation. This allowed the basic widgets to be implemented and configured at an early stage. At the same time, authentication to the ERP system's REST API was implemented in the backend to ensure direct communication between the systems right from the start. In addition, the front-end extension was already connected to the back-end extension via the REST endpoints to be defined in this early phase.

In the second phase, all frontend views were created and the data transfer for the information required for the main view (overview of orders) and the masks with the feedback information was ensured in the backend.

Phase 3 focused on displaying parallel working-processes on an employee’s machine as well as the login / registration via RFID chip. This also required the creation of an additional .NET application to read the RFID reader via a serial port and transfer the chip information to the front end.

Extensive tests of the workflow in a customer-oriented environment ultimately showed that the feedback process worked as desired. The deployment for König went smoothly and the application worked straight away in live operation. A big thank you to the great efforts of our team!

We can now say: the customer is king - and he is extremely satisfied! Thanks to this great project, which will continue with the development of new features.