After several years of intensive development, the central IT department has launched a pioneer project and is now in the process of establishing a secure, fast and uncomplicated network with standardized rules for all KAMAX sites worldwide. This enables IT to identify and rectify errors much more quickly. At the same time, security and network performance increases for all users. The new production plant in Bardejov is now the first operation where the technology was fully implemented.
The challenges of the KAMAX network so far are extensive. There are numerous sites with different standards and hundreds of different devices (e.g. laptops). These devices are maintained and documented manually, and error detection (especially retrospectively) is difficult. Central IT has only a limited overview of this. In the past, such conditions have been used as a target for industrial espionage at other medium-sized companies.
The new network structure solves these problems. The flood of devices, which continues to increase in the wake of digitization, can now be monitored centrally. By logging errors retrospectively, employees can now be better helped to solve technical problems. “We simply want to be able to find out with little effort what the problem was so that we can fix it quickly,” explains IT team leader Thorsten Harres. As example, he refers to the problems with MS Teams at the Turnov site. The platform for video conferencing is not running smoothly there. Since the Czech operation has not been integrated to the new network yet, IT spends around 90% of their time trying to determine whether the fault even lies on the KAMAX side. With a connection to the new network, this effort is reduced to almost 10%.
Server implementation in Bardejov: Lukas Szkwarla and Gabriel Gajdos
Reference for other companies
The project has its origins in security audits in 2014, where many deficiencies became apparent. Together with the technology group Cisco and developers from the USA, IT worked on a new network over several years and thus took a pioneering role, because many other European industrial companies continue to use old network structures and have not even thought about the costly but necessary conversion. The advisory board had already approved the investments three years ago. Now, with the new building in Bardejov, the first location has been equipped with the technology and fully connected to the holding IT in Germany. Restructuring has also already begun in Homberg. This means that KAMAX is already regarded as a reference for other companies in the industrial sector.
There is no time to repair the fence because we always have to catch the chicken!
The uniform standards in the new KAMAX network will make many things easier in the future. Even the connection of the other sites, which is still pending until sufficient budget is available, will no longer take as much time as the pioneering work in Bardejov did a few weeks ago. Nevertheless, the conversion of long-established equipment to the new network structure in particular is a challenge, but also imperative in view of digitization. “I can‘t buy a Ferrari and drive through the terrain and then be surprised when a tractor overtakes me, because it‘s made for off-road use,” Thorsten Harres sums it up. “We need at least a decent road for the Ferrari to drive on, and we don‘t have that globally at the moment.” With IT’s pioneering project, that will soon change.
CONTACT
Thorsten Harres
IT-Infrastructure Teamlead, HO-HOM
PHONE: +49 6633 79 328
Thorsten Harres
IT-Infrastructure Teamlead,,
HO-HOM
PHONE: +49 6633 79 328
KXpress · 2021 | 01
