Make it Quick and Customer-Specific – Experiences From Two priint Projects

EGGER, a leading global manufacturer of wood-based materials, demonstrates how technical challenges can be solved efficiently and effectively by automating the creation of customized price lists and decor books. Stefan Müller, Head of Marketing IT, provides insights into innovative approaches that enable precision and customization in print production.

Print automation at EGGER: Customized solutions for complex challenges

In his priint:day presentation, Stefan Müller, Head of Marketing IT at EGGER, provided exciting insights into the challenges and successes of two groundbreaking print automation projects: the customized price list and the decor book. He showed how historically grown processes were modernized and automated using innovative approaches – a success story that combines technology, organization and creativity.

Project 1: Fully automated, customer-specific price list

For years, price list creation at EGGER was a purely manual process that was particularly demanding and time-consuming due to the large number of variables. With annual price and assortment adjustments, the management of over 30,000 items in 22 different languages and a global harmonization of data, the complexity was enormous. In addition, price lists had to be recreated every two years, which led to continuous effort. Another issue was that the majority of the data and metadata needed for automation was not fully captured in the existing systems. Consolidating this data and adapting it to global requirements was particularly challenging, requiring precise alignment and coordination across different regions.

The complexity of the challenge was particularly evident in the large number of regionally different price lists. Ten different variants, each with its own sub-variants and specific requirements, had to be transferred into a globally applicable template. Initially, this necessity met with internal resistance. Sales employees feared that standardization could restrict customer-specific customization and regional flexibility. Two intensive days of coordination and detailed discussions finally led to a solution that both met regional requirements and provided an overarching structure for consistent processes. The result: a harmonized template that is now used in four global variants and efficiently and sustainably supports the work of the sales force
As mentioned, the data and metadata required for automation were not fully recorded in the existing systems. To close this gap, an extension of the Product Information Management system (PIM) was essential.

This entailed a comprehensive customization of the data models and required training for employees to ensure that they could efficiently implement the new, automated processes. This holistic approach not only enabled the technical implementation but also promoted long-term acceptance within the company.

Even after the successful standardization of the price lists and the implementation of new systems, the biggest challenge had yet to be overcome. It turned out that the existing price lists were not classic price lists, but rather sales brochures that contained extensive advertising content blocks. To integrate these into a standardized automation process, it was necessary to reprocess and restructure the content.

Technical challenges were also on the agenda: price maintenance at EGGER was carried out in SAP using a rule-based model. At the beginning of the project, retrieving the 30,000 item prices still took six hours. By implementing a caching system and further optimizations, the runtime was reduced to just 30 minutes – a crucial step in meeting the daily demand of 300 to 400 customized price lists per run.

Complexity made visible: Promotional content, tables and regulations illustrate the challenges of the price list before its automation

Project 2: Customer-specific decor book

The decor book, which is a combination of a traditional product catalog and advertising, also placed high demands on the automation. In this case, EGGER had to adapt not only the product selection but also the entire design of the decor book to the individual wishes of the customer, because the decor book is tailor-made for each customer and contains both market-specific information and a product selection customized for the respective customer.

Challenge of the decor book: Customized product selection and dynamic advertising content place high demands on automation

“The challenge lay in the dynamic interplay between the individualized advertising elements and the classic product catalog,” explained Stefan Müller. The customization extended to the cover page, the back page and the entire catalog section that is fed from the extranet using a CSV file. Here, the individuals responsible were faced with the task of not only selecting the right products but also adapting the advertising content flexibly and dynamically. It was particularly challenging when products that should not have been included in the catalog nevertheless appeared in the advertising content. These cases made it necessary to dynamize the content to ensure consistent results.

Tools, processes and success criteria

Egger relies on the priint:suite for both projects. While the graphic designers initially trigger the automation manually for the decor book, the sales staff operate the system directly for the price list, which greatly simplifies implementation on a global scale. This is where the advantage of Egger's centralized IT structure comes into play, enabling the company to roll out solutions worldwide and harmonize processes globally.

The collaboration with external partners such as COM10COM was crucial to the success of the projects. Additionally, the flexibility of the sales staff was equally important, enabling the company to efficiently integrate the new systems and to quickly and purposefully implement the necessary adjustments.