How can medium-sized companies use their data to put knowledge management on a new footing with the help of AI, save search effort and learning time for employees and at the same time increase customer satisfaction? BECHEM had been confronted with this question for a long time.
Initial situation
BECHEM from Hagen is the oldest German industrial lubricant manufacturer and today one of the world’s leading manufacturers of high-quality specialty lubricants and metalworking fluids. The company, with its almost 700 employees, impresses with its innovative recipes in almost all industrial areas of application: in exciting and shaping metal processing, in the area of coating technology or in the world of consistent lifetime lubricants in various technical components. A powerful international network of sales partners and our own field service ensure a global presence for BECHEM products.
Problem statement and solution approach
The ever-expanding product portfolio with its many special products requires employees – especially those in sales – to have a high level of specialist knowledge about the individual products, which is stored in detail in the associated data sheets. First consideration of a collective brainstorming at BECHEM, led by Dr. Patrick Degen (Head of Innovation Management), were to use the large amount of data that already existed and create an AI-supported recommender tool. This is intended to help employees pass on their broad knowledge to customers. With the support of the KI NRW Future Center, a first demonstrator was created and presented to the BECHEM management.
The reaction from management was definitely positive, but recommended that the topic of AI be broader overall and that all relevant departments in the company be included.
Implementation
This is how the subsequent workshop came about, in which the KI NRW Future Center was able to present many different scenarios and use cases to selected employees together with the management of BECHEM and also gave them the opportunity to interactively develop and discuss their own ideas. It was also pre-sorted which implementation projects would be more demanding, lengthy, time-consuming and expensive, and which could be implemented immediately as so-called “low hanging fruits” with relatively little effort.
“The workshop was well received. The employees were all very enthusiastic because everyone could relate to the many examples from the manufacturing industry.”
Patrick Degen, Head of Innovation Management BECHEM
In addition to the idea of making it easier for employees to access company agreements, rules and instructions in the HR area through a chatbot for knowledge management, the workshop also revisited an earlier idea: a product advice tool on the BECHEM website. This tool is intended to relieve the burden on internal sales by allowing customers to define their specific product requirements online in advance. This means that the final consultation by an employee can be more targeted and efficient, which saves valuable time. Another advantage of such a tool is of course the empowerment of the sales employees in sales themselves.
“We have a lot of field staff who are very good, who know all the products that would be best suited for the respective application… but of course this is not the case right from the start, especially with new employees. This is exactly where a product advice tool, for example in the form of an app on the cell phone or computer, can be helpful.”
Patrick Degen, Head of Innovation Management BECHEM
The need for further support was clearly recognized by the consultants towards the end of the intensive consultation. The question of the extent to which the technical implementation can be achieved with the help of a chatbot is currently being examined. Together with the KI NRW Future Center, BECHEM is investigating the various possibilities, for example to what extent the system can or should access data outside of BECHEM.
We look forward to future collaboration and are excited to see how the project we were able to start together develops!
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