The story in a nutshell
- The framas group, a leading supplier for the sports shoe industry, employs around 3,300 people in 13 locations worldwide.
- The company is digitally transforming its processes to address challenges such as faltering supply chains, skills shortages, IT security and the need for more sustainable production.
- With TeamViewer, production technicians securely access production machines remotely, avoiding travel and costly downtimes and increasing satisfaction among framas' customers.
- The IT department relies on TeamViewer Tensor and its integration with MS Intune to efficiently manage the global device pool and ensure fast IT service.
Background
framas is one of the world’s largest suppliers to the sports shoe industry. With 3,300 employees in 13 locations worldwide, the company produces plastic components to produce shoes of well-known brands from the sports shoe industry. TeamViewer is part of the digitalization strategy at framas: With TeamViewer Tensor, technicians access machine terminals in production quickly and securely from a distance. The company also uses TeamViewer Tensor to provide support for its employees’ IT devices.
Challenges
It is framas’ goal to provide its customers with consistently good quality, even in times of faltering supply chains and skill shortages, and to be at the forefront of innovation in its industry. In addition, the company consistently looks at ways to meet its sustainability goals according to international standards and certifications.
The challenges faced by Framas’ global IT department include the efficient and secure IT support for employee devices at all locations worldwide.
But also the digital transformation of the production processes has also long been in full swing. For example, it is necessary to access the Windows-based control terminals of production equipment such as CNC and injection moulding machines around the world if the connection between the machine and the ERP system is interrupted. Prolonged downtime in production or inaccurate ERP data can quickly become expensive if the supply chain comes to a standstill as a result, and ultimately customer satisfaction is at stake.
“Due to accessing critical infrastructure in production, a very high level of IT security, regular updates and reliable customer support are key when deploying any new technology solution”, says Apostolos Georgiou, IT administrator at framas.
Apostolos Georgiou IT administrator at framas
“Cybersecurity has always been a priority for us, and this will continue in the future. With TeamViewer Tensor, in addition to end-to-end encryption, we benefit from other security features such as single sign-on, connection traceability and better management of the IT pool.”
Solution
For more than 10 years, framas has relied on TeamViewer as part of its digitalisation strategy to reliably cover the increasing demands of the IT team and production technicians in terms of usability, scalability, service quality and IT security.
Downtime in production caused by a malfunction between the machine and the ERP system can be conveniently and quickly remedied from its German headquarters without hours of travel time and the corresponding costs. In addition, the shortage of skilled workers in technical professions can be mitigated by the efficient TeamViewer solution, as a small workforce is sufficient for maintaining hundreds of terminals globally.
“For us, it is also important that TeamViewer requires very little bandwidth. In some production halls, the network is not well developed across the board. TeamViewer can only be praised here because it transmits very little data and is therefore very well suited for such environments,” says Georgiou.
In internal IT support, framas has continued to expand the use of TeamViewer to keep up with the increasing requirements and a growing number of production sites and employee devices. Here, too, 99 percent of all support cases can be handled remotely. In addition, TeamViewer is integrated into MS Intune and automatically installed on every new employee device. Recently, the IT department switched to TeamViewer’s enterprise connectivity platform Tensor, which provides an additional plus in security and convenience in device management.
“The topic of cybersecurity has always been a priority to us, which will continue in the future. With TeamViewer Tensor, in addition to end-to-end encryption, we benefit from other security features such as single sign-on, connection traceability and better IT pool management,” says Georgiou.
Outcome
TeamViewer has been the remote access solution of choice at framas for over ten years and is an important part of the company’s digitalisation strategy. In addition to the travel time saved and an IT service that is ready for use at any time, TeamViewer contributes to higher productivity and helps framas to position itself as a supplier at eye level with its demanding customers.
The results speak for themselves
- Access to terminals in production increases machine availability and reduces downtime
- Fast and reliable IT service for the global workforce
- High security for critical infrastructure through TeamViewer Tensor
- Reduced travel times of IT department and production technicians pay off on sustainability goals
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