IBM > Case Studies > Supporting massive business growth on a global scale

Supporting massive business growth on a global scale

Customer Company Size

Large Corporate

Region

Europe

Country

Germany

Product

IBM DB2 with BLU Acceleration
SAP ERP
SAP ERP Human Capital Management
SAP Strategic Enterprise Management
SAP Global Trade Services

Tech Stack

IBM DB2
SAP Business Warehouse
SAP ERP
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
VMware virtualization

Implementation Scale

Enterprise-wide Deployment

Impact Metrics

Productivity Improvements
Cost Savings

Technology Category

Analytics & Modeling - Real Time Analytics
Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Data Exchange & Integration
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - Cloud Computing

Applicable Industries

Automotive
Railway & Metro

Applicable Functions

Discrete Manufacturing
Logistics & Transportation

Use Cases

Predictive Maintenance
Inventory Management
Supply Chain Visibility

Services

Cloud Planning, Design & Implementation Services
Data Science Services

About The Customer

The Knorr-Bremse Group is a leading manufacturer of braking systems for rail and commercial vehicles. The company is headquartered in Munich, Germany, and operates more than 100 production sites in 29 countries around the world. It employs more than 23,900 people. In 2014, the company achieved sales revenues of EUR5.2 billion (USD5.8 billion). Every day, more than one billion people rely on Knorr-Bremse's systems. The company is constantly aligning its business to the changing requirements of its agile group structure. It is essential for the company to standardize processes across the group without slowing down decision-making at any level or disrupting manufacturing and logistics workflows.

The Challenge

Knorr-Bremse, a leading manufacturer of braking systems for rail and commercial vehicles, was facing a challenge. The company was experiencing significant growth, both organically and through acquisitions. This growth was leading to an increase in data volumes, which was slowing down its analytics capabilities and increasing costs. The company was using 60 SAP systems in a fully virtualized private cloud environment, with IBM DB2 managing the underlying data. However, as data volumes increased, the company found that its SAP Business Warehouse solutions were struggling to keep up with demand. The company needed a solution that would enable it to integrate acquired companies into its SAP application landscape, deliver comprehensive performance reports more quickly, and standardize processes across the group without slowing down decision-making or disrupting manufacturing and logistics workflows.

The Solution

Knorr-Bremse decided to upgrade to IBM DB2 with BLU Acceleration. This solution enabled the company to run its growing SAP Business Warehouse faster with in-memory technology, without the need to invest in new infrastructure or training. The company was able to implement the new data compression features, reducing data volumes of already compressed data by up to 64 percent across all SAP Business Warehouse solutions. By activating BLU Acceleration, the company further reduced the size of its largest analytics databases by 10 percent. The upgrade was straightforward and seamless, and the company was able to roll it out step by step online and without downtime, ensuring operational processes were not disrupted.

Operational Impact

Knorr-Bremse started using the BLU Acceleration features without changing or expanding its existing IT infrastructure or system administration workflows.
By implementing new data compression features, Knorr-Bremse has cut data volumes of already compressed data by up to 64 percent across all SAP Business Warehouse solutions.
By activating BLU Acceleration, the company reduced the size of its largest analytics databases by a further 10 percent.
Staff can run complex reports in seconds rather than minutes.

Quantitative Benefit

Data volumes of already compressed data reduced by up to 64 percent across all SAP Business Warehouse solutions.
Size of largest analytics databases reduced by a further 10 percent by activating BLU Acceleration.
Certain reports now run 17 times faster, in only nine seconds.
Other SAP Business Warehouse reports run as much as 55 times faster.