Eplan Smart Sourcing enables designers to replace critical parts at an early stage. Within projects, they can create directly qualified bills of materials – i. e. those containing only available parts. This simplifies downstream processes, as the procurement team can finalise the order with the preferred supplier without further coordination loops. Design and procurement are thus significantly accelerated.
With Eplan Smart Sourcing, the bill of materials or selected items from it can be transferred directly from the engineering department to a supplier’s online shop. The components are added to the shopping basket at the touch of a button. This not only speeds up the procurement process, but it also makes it less prone to errors.
With Eplan Smart Sourcing, designers can automatically check the availability of all items in a project across multiple suppliers. The relevant information comes directly from the supplier and is therefore highly reliable. This makes it particularly useful when communicating with customers – for example, regarding potential delivery dates. To uniquely identify items from a bill of materials, Eplan Smart Sourcing uses a matching algorithm.
First design the product, then order the components – this sequence has been used for electrical engineering designs for decades. However, with Eplan Smart Sourcing manufacturers and distributors can establish customer relationships at a much earlier stage of the process since they learn about component requirements at a very early stage – and in very concrete terms. Since many companies use Eplan, the number of potential new customers is also quite large.
Eplan Smart Sourcing offers manufacturers and distributors the possibility to create their demand forecasts based on actual customer projects. Since component requirements are already recorded during their customers’ design engineering phase, incoming orders can be predicted with relative certainty and at relatively short notice.
Questions about required components tie up fewer resources than before for distributors and manufacturers. This is because a matching algorithm in ESS can identify devices from bills of materials and directly request them. Gone are the days when you had to handle this via telephone or e-mail and perhaps even first find out which part is meant. This all runs automatically on ESS.
Add new suppliers
ESS users can view a list of connected participants and, after authentication, easily add suppliers to their setup.
Check availability and delivery times
Availability and delivery times are displayed using a traffic-light system – directly in the user’s ECAD mask.
Information in real time
By updating item availability with a simple mouse click, the user is always shown the current number of components.
Transfer bills of materials directly to online shops
Bills of materials or selected devices can be transferred directly to suppliers’ online shops.
"By closely integrating engineering and distribution, we create a digital process chain for our shared customers that simplifies planning, speeds up procurement and makes projects more efficient. Our goal is clear: less complexity, faster implementation and greater productivity in day-to-day industrial operations."
Dr. Oliver Vogler
Chief Purchasing und Marketing Officer, Rexel Germany GmbH & Co. KG
"Eplan Smart Sourcing is the perfect next step. It fits seamlessly into our range of solutions and enables smarter, more economical and future-oriented cooperation between engineering processes and procurement processes."
Sascha Liese
Managing Director of Smart Industries at Alexander Bürkle
“This enables both our customers and us to gain valuable insights for optimising the product portfolio, avoiding bottlenecks and planning and implementing projects more reliably.”
Roman Hegenbart
Division and Sales Manager Industry & Key Accounts, Cables & Wires, Emil Löffelhardt GmbH & Co. KG
Do you want to find out more about Eplan Smart Sourcing? Then get in touch with us, we’ll be happy to tell you more!
