Group-wide quality and process management à la carte

With its nine companies, the Eberhard Group has been a pioneer in construction and the environment for over 60 years, particularly in the fields of civil engineering, dismantling, recycling and the remediation of contaminated sites. Over 600 employees work on construction sites, in construction materials recycling and in workshops, ensure the transportation of construction materials and materials or work in administration, consulting, development, scheduling, construction management, project management, machine control or in the 24-hour emergency on-call service. The EBIANUM Excavator Museum & Events division was also launched in 2015. With so many different areas and tasks, meeting all the requirements for comprehensive quality and process management is a major challenge.

Long-standing, software-supported management system
As an innovative and far-sighted group of companies, the decision was made back in 2003 to introduce a quality management system that can adapt to the developments of the individual companies and respond to changing market conditions. Together with IMS AG, processes, risks and organizational structures were brought together centrally in IMS PREMIUM and prepared for cross-company and cross-departmental use. Since then, employees from all companies, departments and levels have been using the rights-based management system as a daily tool. With regular updates, functional enhancements and, in particular, the expansion of information over the years, the software has become the central information platform.

Group-wide processes and maps - standardized yet individual
As a group of companies with several locations and business units, local and unit-specific requirements must be taken into account, particularly in process management. For this reason, uniform, common processes were initially defined centrally as standard processes and released for use everywhere.

Subsequently, the individual locations and divisions were able to add their own individual content, exchange linked documents and continuously pass on changes to the processes. This guarantees that the processes are always up to date, regardless of whether the standard process is adapted or a local, supplemented version is changed. Process maps were also defined and graphically implemented depending on the location or company. The standardization of processes has also been simplified with the multiple use of (sub-)processes. Regardless of whether the process was integrated as a link, as a copy or as a derived version - traceability is ensured at all times. Thanks to the reduction in duplicate processes, the maintenance effort has been reduced and it is easier to ensure that the correct version is used.

Introduction of IMS PREMIUM version 4.0 as a reboot in the corporate design
Although satisfied with the many years of use, the call for a fresh design and visual integration of the system grew stronger. With the introduction of a completely new, ergonomic user concept and plenty of scope for company-specific design requirements as standard, IMS PREMIUM version 4.0 was able to impress. As no updates have been made since 2016, the “jump” to the latest version almost felt like a completely new system. Together with an external IT company and IMS AG as software partner, the system was first updated in a test environment. During the subsequent training and e-learning, the new functionalities and possibilities were presented and design requirements (e.g. graphic process maps) were defined. The corporate design of Eberhard Unternehmungen was fully integrated - from the corporate colors, logos, fonts and images to the individual process maps.

“I am very satisfied with the result,” says Daniel Hiltebrand, Head of Quality Management / Occupational Safety / Environment at Eberhard Unternehmungen. He had requested the graphical change in order to promote acceptance of the central management system across the company. He continues: "The system has been very well received throughout the Group and people can identify with the new corporate design. The IMS update and a server change at our IT partner have also led to a faster system." Patrick Werder, Project Manager at IMS AG, can also confirm that the new design with its individual customization options for the company's own corporate design has been very well received by customers in general.

With the introduction of the new IMS PREMIUM version in the look and feel of the Eberhard companies, an important step towards the digital future has been taken. Further steps are already planned in order to fully exploit the potential of lively processes and dynamic information.

End-to-end digitalization and automation thanks to integration with existing business solutions
Today, the aim is for all information to be available in a network - and therefore retrievable as complete, up-to-date information chains. This means that a management system must support collaborative functionality with other IT systems. In this way, the best features and functions of each system can be integrated and the user can be provided with simple and consistent use. Eberhard Unternehmungen is also planning a further expansion step with the SAP connection to the existing management system. At the same time, existing processes are to be reconsidered, optimized and then configured in the system. In combination with situation-based approval workflows and the new possibilities in document management, processes such as “personnel entry” can be carried out digitally and automatically throughout in the future. Another goal is to expand the use of risk functionalities in order to prepare for ISO certification, among other things.