Acron Group, a Russian vertically integrated mineral fertiliser producer, is developing an internal EDI (Electronic Information Interchange) system at its production facilities in Novgorod and Smolensk regions to support digital transformation and accelerate operations.
The introduction of electronic safe work permits for hazardous operations (production segment, more than 40,000 documents per year) and digitisation of internal movement of tangible assets (accounting segment, more than 25,000 documents per year) have already passed the pilot phase.
Maria Nalitova, Head of EHS Department at Acron, said, ‘Since 2022, Acron has been using electronic safe work permits for hazardous operations and the new protocols for them. All stages, from document generation to approval, are fully digitalised and processed within the corporate information system. Employees no longer have to spend time obtaining work permits, and a full agreed list of future work is available at the end of each day. We have also introduced an electronic log for safe work permits, which simplifies inspections, analysis of production events, and reporting to regulatory authorities. The internal EDI system makes the industrial safety management faster, more accurate, and more accessible’.
Nadezhda Pavlova, Acron’s Chief Accountant, added, ‘Switching from paper to digital documents has made the work of financially responsible personnel easier: they don’t need to submit paper documents for approval. Considering the size of our production site, the process has become much faster. It now takes less time and effort for an accountant to find a document in the records and submit it to a regulator on request, not to mention the savings in printing costs. We can already see a significant impact of digital transformation on our work, and we look forward to scaling the solution’.
Denis Guzanov, Head of Acron Group IT Department stressed that the development of the internal EDI system is one of the Group’s priority IT projects. ‘It is designed to speed up business processes, obtain operational data faster, and relieve highly skilled employees from routine tasks by digitising paper documents. Acron Group will continue to develop and scale up the internal EDI, relying on the positive experiences and effects of digital transformation’.