Improving Customer Satisfaction with a Custom MES and Mendix Workflow

For five generations, Marzek Etiketten has been managed by the same family. The group owns Marzek Kner, which produces packaging materials – from wine labels to pharmaceuticals and cosmetics – for hundreds of international companies.

Their goal is to pass on a well-functioning, future-proofed business for generations to come. Today, this means ensuring the group  is ready for continuous development and innovation by digitalizing its production processes. However, siloed systems, disjointed operations, and manual work were standing in their way.

Marzek Kner wanted to make workflows more efficient and transparent throughout the business – from meeting delivery deadlines in logistics to decreasing response times in customer service. They chose the Mendix platform, and expert implementation partner BlackBelt Technology, to develop a custom MES that offers a more connected manufacturing lifecycle.

Workflows, Interrupted

In the relatively traditional printing and packaging industry, Marzek Kner was struggling to meet delivery deadlines promised to customers and knew it needed to do something different.

An audit revealed that two areas in particular faced significant obstacles: the flow of information and the assignment of tasks. The company wanted to take control to provide a better service to its end customers and be a step ahead of its competitors.

Following the audit, Marzek Kner uncovered three main challenges:

1. Lack of clarity and information between employees around ideal workflows, as well as unclear lines of responsibility, were resulting in complicated communications and missed information.
2. Reduced visibility across production planning procedures meant teams were lacking real-time access to information to plan and meet delivery deadlines effectively – from team capacity to raw material levels.
3. Little-to-no feedback opportunities without a process management tool in the organization

In addition, previous systems and manual processes continuously failed to reflect the real-time changes in production. This resulted in outdated information and tasks being assigned late – or even incorrectly. Not only did this create internal production delays and shipment issues, but it also left employees to deal with bottlenecks and dissatisfied customers.

“In the complaints department, for example, we were figuring out how to handle complaints by email. More often than not, we’d be lost in a chaos of internal email threads and requests to customers to re-share important information,” said David Lakatos, Quality Management Expert at Marzek Kner.

“Plus, our front office colleagues who are starting these complaints had to know exactly who needed to be attached in the emails, which drove further complications and frustrations,” Lakatos continued.

The company needed a software-based solution that would make workflows transparent and automatic, with clear owners and next steps.

Marzek Kner spoke with a variety of vendors to understand which would be the best fit, from ERP solutions to dedicated workflow platforms. After establishing a scoring system and many demos, the company knew it wanted to keep its current ERP system so it needed a solution that could work with and alongside its existing processes and systems.

After the selection process, Marzek Kner knew Mendix could help build the tools it needed to monitor processes, optimize task allocation, and ensure the necessary conditions for work were in place.

A Complete Package

Marzek Kner kicked off with Mendix in 2021. They began working with their partner, BlackBelt, to integrate their existing ERP system with new workflow capabilities with Mendix.

The goal was to create a first-of-its-kind solution for Marzek Kner by combining software and hardware to create the ideal Manufacturing Execution System (MES) Lite application.

The company set out to build something unique to Marzek Kner: an MES system that communicated due tasks to machine operators and factored in any pre-requisites from the job in terms of raw materials, such as plates or ink quality.

Marzek Kner and BlackBelt took a phased approach to their development:

1. Establishing a frame system in Mendix which was tailor made for packaging.
2. Creating five workflows in Mendix that would cover processes such as pricing and sales order changes.
3. Ensure API connections could be integrated with the company’s existing ERP system and Mendix to avoid duplicate data entry.

The Mendix platform was used to build a system that could handle tasks in real time, track resources, and ensure that a task is only assigned to an operator when all the conditions for work are in place.

“We started out with a proof-of-concept, before carrying out the five key processes the company identified. This was the starting point for the project, with the team learning the basics of Mendix and applying their learnings on the job,” Bokor shared.

In addition, the “mini data market” created by BlackBelt using Mendix Marketplace supports the creation of reporting and KPIs – forming the basis for continuous process improvement.

The first workflow that went live was designed for the company’s customer relationship department to support activities such as price quotations, data entry processes, and new customer or vendor registration processes. The company also implemented quality control into the complaint handing and internal loss management side of the business.

By using Mendix Workflow, the Marzek Kner team did not need to rely on BPM specialists and could more readily implement business feedback into their tools.

By developing MES Lite with Mendix, Marzek Kner has made significant progress in the following areas:

• Transparency: The application allows for full transparency in task assignment and execution. With the digitalized workflow system, the company can track employee performance, lead times, error rates, and waiting times – data that’s essential for optimizing processes.
• Efficiency: Automatic task allocation ensures the right work reaches the right person at the right time, significantly reducing internal production stoppages.
• Scalability: The system is not only designed to meet current needs but can also be easily expanded in the future.
• Self-Sufficiency: The company established an internal development team of three people to further develop and optimize workflows internally. This supports the company’s long-term independent growth and flexibility.

Unwrapping the Potential of People

In line with the company’s mission to maintain control over their low-code applications as they scale, Klaukó stressed the importance of building out a dedicated Mendix team.

From his previous experience of setting up digital workflows in a financial services environment, Klaukó knew that without a dedicated software development team it would be a constant fight for resources – and incredibly difficult to make minor or simple changes.

Klaukó made the case to Marzek Kner that, with just one or two full-time employees, the company would have the necessary resources to move at pace and not lose time and money. Having employees dedicated to the project, the company could be flexible and adapt quickly to make the changes it vitally needed.

Marzek Kner hired three employees to be trained in low-code on Mendix. These employees were not only involved in coding and development, but also the training of other employees – including creating materials and ensuring feedback from key end users was collected and actioned.

“Before we started the project, every key area was asked if they would like to work on this project. I, of course, said yes as we needed to improve existing workflows in the complaints department. As key users, we were part of the process and provided feedback on what was being developed,” said Lakatos.

Upskilling was also a vital part of the project’s delivery. To make sure outputs weren’t restricted, the team carried out regular training on the latest solutions. This meant the project wasn’t just an investment for the company, but also in its people by enabling them to build on their skills to get the job done. 

A Blueprint for Innovation

Next, Marzek Kner will be looking at creating an application for HR, including recruitment, salary appraisals, people allocations, and the onboarding and exit processes. Alongside the HR team, Klaukó will be planning and implementing specific HR-processes using Mendix to better support this function within the business.

“Whether it’s implementing another application or working with handheld devices in the warehouses and integrating a network flow application, Marzek Kner can achieve endless possibilities with Mendix,” reports Bokor.

The company is also considering implementing generative AI capabilities with Mendix. Marzek Kner is interested in how AI can support code reviews – helping improve the speed of development and the application performance over time.

This creates efficiency during the initial development, and also makes it possible for end-users to be more proactive in iterating over time. AI chatbot support may also be incorporated in the company’s next project to help provide answers to prospective employees as they apply for roles.