Pune-based pumps and valves manufacturing company, KSB Pumps has begun preparing for a major SAP roll-out in the company. The SAP implementation will begin sometime in January next year and SAP R 3 will be rolled out in all five manufacturing locations and four zonal offices of the company. Presently, the company is using a homegrown ERP solution.

KSB Pumps IT (corporate) Head, JB Takidar informed that a good company's growth has prompted an increase in the IT spending. “We had anticipated a revenue of Rs 270 crore this year. Since the market conditions were so good, the company touched the Rs 300 crore mark. The company management therefore decided to precipitate the implementation of SAP that was originally planned for December 2007,” he explained.

KSB plants worldwide have already implemented SAP. India gained an edge over the Chinese manufacturing location since its growth has been pretty good and the Indian operation has become a significant contributor to the parent company based in Europe. SAP has already been implemented in Germany and South Africa.

The total project cost involves a sum of Rs 15 crore that will be spread over a span of three years. Takidar said that internal experts would administer the implementation. “We will use the templates from the German location and customize it for the Indian conditions. This is a part of the Basic Process Re-engineering exercise in the company,” he added.

Moreover, since the company's other plants globally are already on SAP and are keenly looking at their Indian counterpart for sourcing products, this implementation would help in maintaining uniform information systems throughout the company.

KSB had earlier developed an online Godown Free Stock Monitoring System (GFSMS), an e-business initiative that shares availability of stocks across godowns and ensures faster fulfillment of dealer requirements across the country. Takidar said that the company had earlier hosted this out and was managing it internally. 

This system will continue even after the SAP rollout, as one of the satellite systems. So far, the system only managed sales and inventory across various godowns. There are plans to include indenting and forecasting modules. The KSB team is now working on developing budgeting, forecasting and performance evaluation modules.

NANDA KASABE
PUNE

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