Company Profile
KMA Umwelttechnik is a German family-owned business founded in 1959, initially specializing in metalwork such as doors and facades. Over the decades, it expanded its expertise to develop energy-efficient air filtration and heat recovery systems tailored to a wide range of industrial sectors, including textiles, foundries, and general manufacturing.
- Industry: Industrial Filtration Systems
- Employees: 200+
- Annual Turnover: 20M+ USD
- Presence: Operates across 3+ countries
- ERP Hosting: Odoo Community, hosted in China (Shanghai branch)
- Core Business: Exhaust air purification, filtration, and heat recovery equipment for industrial environments
Challenges Faced
Prior to adopting Odoo, KMA’s China branch operated using a combination of Excel files and outdated legacy systems. This fragmented environment created several key operational bottlenecks:
- Complex product configurations with numerous variants and options were difficult to manage manually
- No centralized structure for handling Bill of Materials (BoMs) or automated purchase triggers
- Lack of a proper ERP integration for inventory and procurement
- Difficulty implementing an accurate FIFO-based stock valuation for accounting and operational transparency
Odoo Implementation
To digitalize KMA’s Shanghai operations, we implemented Odoo Community Edition, fully covering the core business flow:
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Modules Implemented:
- Sales
- Purchases
- Inventory
- Manufacturing (BoM, Work Orders)
- Accounting (Anglo-Saxon style, with automated stock entries)
- Human Resources (Time-Off management)
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Key Customizations:
- Quotation Enhancements: Custom document templates to support complex machinery options and generate dynamic technical documentation
- Variant-Driven BoMs: Designed a scalable data structure for large, configurable machinery with multiple product options and dependencies
- Procurement Automation: Triggered purchases based on Sales Orders and BoM dependencies
- FIFO Valuation: Implemented dynamic FIFO stock valuation logic in the accounting module for better traceability
Business Benefits
Following the Odoo deployment, KMA China experienced measurable improvements in several areas:
Operational Efficiency
- End-to-end process integration across sales, manufacturing, and procurement reduced manual entry and eliminated duplicate workflows.
- Configurable machinery can now be quoted and documented much faster thanks to automated technical sheet generation.
Cost Savings
- Streamlined procurement with automatic purchase triggers minimized overstock and improved cash flow.
- Eliminated reliance on Excel-based planning, reducing human errors and effort.
Scalability
- The ERP now serves as a scalable foundation for future growth, with structured data that supports more complex operations or further automation.
- Variant and BoM structure supports expanding the product line without redesigning system logic.