WCA November 2014

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18 Wire & Cable ASIA – November/December 2014
Industrynews
WHEN ICS Industrial Cables
Slovakia sro (ICS) was
founded in 2005 and moved
into its premises in the city of
Nitra, Slovakia, it initially made
use of Office software like
MS-Excel.
Part of the Austrian SKG
Group, the company
specialises in high quality,
flexible industrial cables. The
company processes an
average of 250 to 300 different
orders per month, a large
proportion of them being
customer-specific one-off
orders. Inevitably, the
self-developed, Excel-based
software solution no longer
sufficed, and ICS was on the
lookout for a ‘software solution
for clever cable-makers’.
ICS’s sister company SKW
(Schwechater Kabelwerke)
was also looking for a software
system to succeed its
inventory control system for
cable trading, which had been
individually developed over
many years.
Further development of its
own software, or a renewed
realisation of individualised
software, were rejected for
reasons of cost and time.
Right from the start, both
companies were looking for a
standard software system with
an industry-specific orien-
tation. They found it at Advaris
Informationssysteme GmbH in
Bruchsal, Germany. Advaris
has been present in the market
since 1997, supporting major
international enterprises as
well as small and medium
manufacturers. SKW decided
on the Advaris merchandise
management system. Ever
since 2010, the software which
has been in the background
helping to plan, monitor and
document the complex
processes at ICS in Nitra is the
Advaris Cable complete
integrated system.
“The production of industrial
cables is a world of its own,”
said ICS managing director
Stefan Knasko, commenting
on the high demands of his
sector. This applies particularly
to the software environment.
“Not all firms offering software
solutions for length-based
manufacturers are really
specialists,” said Advaris CEO
Dr Manfred Moser.
“If a programmer associates
the word ‘twist’ more with a
type of dance than with cable
manufacturing, it cannot be
assumed that he will offer a
high performance, sector
specific solution.” However, it
was just such a solution that
was urgently needed in Nitra.
“SKW had already decided on
the merchandise management
system WMS of Advaris Cable,
and recommended Advaris to
us because of their positive
experiences,” said Stefan
Knasko.
Advaris WMS is a specialised
warehouse management sys-
tem covering the areas of
sales, purchasing and
inventory management in the
cable and wire industry. WMS
supports order processing
with functions that are
specifically sector optimised,
from initial customer contact
to delivery and invoicing.
Even at the quotation stage
the individual lengths,
packaging, cutting costs,
drum terms and metal
agreements are taken into
account.
Materials planning is also
length-based throughout, and
inventory management has a
complete record of the all the
individual spools with their
exact cable lengths and, if
applicable, the existing length
reservations. One special
highlight is the budget
planning tool.
ICS Industrial Cables
Slovakia sro – Slovakia
Website:
Advaris Informationssysteme
GmbH – Germany
Website:
ICS opts for Advaris system
❍ Cable manufacturing is a very special sector. Only a few software
developers have a thorough grasp of its requirements
Prysmian
pays €6.2m
for shares
Prysmian Group
has finalised the
acquisition of the
remaining 34 per
cent interest in AS
Draka Keila Cables,
thereby becoming
the sole shareholder
of the Estonian
cable company.
The price of this
acquisition amounts
to €6.2 million and
takes into consi-
deration a positive
net financial
position (cash) of
approximately €4.9
million at the end of
2013.
Draka Keila Cables
reported sales of
approximately
€53.8 million in
2013 and is
expected to deliver
growing results in
2014.
With six plants in
Finland, Sweden,
Norway, Denmark
and Estonia,
Prysmian can rely
on a prominent
presence in the
Nordic region. The
company is able to
offer a wide range
of products from
submarine and
underground high
and medium
voltage cable
systems, to special
cable solutions for
oil and gas, the
marine industry,
the renewable
energy sector,
telecommunication
and cablings for
the construction
sector.