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| Spica's access control system allows Lafarge continuous access to employees' presence/absence |
Lafarge Cement d. d., Trbovlje cement works is a part of the international Lafarge group, the world's largest manufacturer of building materials. They employ 90,000 people in over 76 countries. In 2007 their turnover totalled 17.6 billion Euros, generating 1.9 billion Euros of profit. The Trbovlje cement works has been operating since 1876, and was taken over by Lafarge Perlmooser AG in 2002 - successfully upgrading the strategic partnership between the companies.
Uniform platform for time management instead of SAP
Prior to the introduction of the new time management solution, Lafarge Cement d.d. used a SAP transaction information system. Data on the employees' presence was captured on a Spica terminal, with the data on working hours transmitted online from the Spica terminal, in an XML format through a Business Connector interface, to the SAP HR. Such a system for time management and also wage calculation was both demanding and time-consuming for all employees in the personnel office. All data had to be checked in a special SAP module and specific information added. This process took up around half of the personnel office's working time.
The access control system allows each employee direct access to the status of their working hours, their presence, vacation, sick leaves and overtime worked |
At the end of 2006, and with the purpose of modernising the system of working time calculation, and of simplifying the tasks of the personnel office, Lafarge Cement decided to eliminate the use of the Business Connector and to introduce Spica's own system for time management - Time&Space. "We wanted a solution which would ensure simple capture and calculation of working time on a uniform platform. For this reason we chose Spica's solution," says Boris Zagoricnik, Head of Projects at Lafarge Cement. The selected solution had to comply with the strict demands of the Lafarge Group with respect to information security, compatibility, reliability and maintenance. In cooperation with Spica's expert consultants, they utilised the existing DOG20 terminals, installed Spica's Event Collector and SQL server onto the main server for data capture.
Web access makes the administrators' work simpler
To accommodate the specific working practices in the cement works, they also installed the Web TS module. This enables supervisors to enter job costing information over web access. Instead of sending the data to be entered into SAP, they now enter working tasks and job costing directly into the Time&Space system, which also permits entries to be edited, while all data is now immediately available to the personnel office. Web access also allows each employee direct access to the status of their working hours, their presence, vacation, sick leaves and the total of overtime worked. From the Time&Space system, the information is exported, once a month, to SAP, where only a few changes need be made - mainly concerning changes of shifts or sick leave.
Remarkable advantages and constant improvements
At the moment they are testing Spica's system for access control, which would enable them to unify data and to abolish the use of a separate system. This would introduce simplified operation, additional reduction of maintenance costs, and a high level of reliability. Similarly, in the next phase, they plan to introduce the Front Space module for visitor management and data exchange with Maximo, a maintenance and strategic asset management system.
By choosing the Time&Space solution, Lafarge Cement benefitted from a number of advantages:
- Completely freeing-up the personnel office's time
- Continuous access to employees' presence/absence
- Working time management simplified and ordered
- Savings in SAP license costs for local administration
- Maintenance contract with Spica, and call response
- Open and flexible system
- Universal connectivity
