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Customer Success Story

 

MAHLE Revolutionises
IT Operations with
Containerisation

 

 

Data-led Insights Fusion Global Business Solutions

33%

of IT Service requests automated

business acceleration services

90%

reduction in upgrade times

customer experience

1000+

increase in resource utilisation efficency

Company Overview

MAHLE is a leading international development partner and supplier to the automotive industry, serving customers in both the passenger car and commercial vehicle sectors. Founded in 1920, the technology group is working towards climate-neutral mobility for the future, focusing on strategic areas such as electrification and thermal management. It is also advancing technologies to reduce CO₂ emissions, including fuel cells and highly efficient, clean combustion engines that run on renewable fuels such as hydrogen.

Today, one in every two vehicles globally is equipped with MAHLE components. In 2023, the company generated sales of almost 13 billion euros. MAHLE is represented by more than 72,000 employees across 148 production locations and 11 technology centres in 29 countries (as of 31 December 2023).

The Challenge

MAHLE needed to upgrade its IT Service Management (ITSM) solution to align with its strategic objectives and meet the growing demands of digitalisation. Enhancing efficiency across all operations—including office environments, operational technology (OT) systems, and production plants—was a key priority. Improved IT support for quality management, enhanced system performance, and better inventory management were essential to achieving the company’s goals.

Given the critical importance of business continuity, MAHLE has made significant investments over the years to ensure the ability to run continuous workloads—systems that operate 24/7, 365 days a year—in an exceptionally optimised and cost-effective manner. As a result, the company opted for on-premises infrastructure over cloud solutions to achieve better governance and lower costs. This decision allowed MAHLE to maintain strict compliance with data security and privacy policies while still pursuing modernisation objectives.

As digital threats continued to evolve, strengthening cybersecurity became increasingly vital, requiring a robust system to safeguard against potential risks. Ensuring 24/7 operations with minimal downtime remained a top priority, necessitating a reliable and resilient IT infrastructure.

Economic considerations also played a role, as balancing the cost-effectiveness of on-premises solutions with the need for advanced IT capabilities was crucial. The upgrade had to be both economically viable and capable of delivering the necessary technological advancements to support MAHLE’s long-term digital transformation.

The Solution

MAHLE collaborated with Fusion Global Business Solutions to embark on a comprehensive IT transformation journey, addressing key areas such as technology and architecture, IT processes, IT service portfolio, IT efficiency, and cybersecurity. Opting for a strategic migration to BMC Helix ITSM on-premises, also known as Enterprise Service Management (ESM), MAHLE ensured compliance with data regulations while leveraging its existing expertise.

One of the pivotal decisions was to adopt containerisation for application provisioning. While simultaneously managing daily tasks, MAHLE successfully deployed three BMC Helix ITSM environments—Development, QA, and Production—within just three months. The implementation of advanced automation and AI-driven solutions enhanced IT service delivery, ensuring faster response times and minimal downtime, effectively addressing all operational concerns.

By keeping the system on-premises, MAHLE maintained strict adherence to its robust data security and privacy policies. The company’s IT security by design approach is upheld through stringent security measures and the automation of backend safety processes. Stephan Groth, Director of Global Enterprise Architecture Management at MAHLE, highlights this achievement: “We are very proud that every third IT service request is fully automatic, which means the entire process happens fully machine-documented without human touch, including auditing of higher access rights.”

MAHLE continues to benefit from the cost-efficiency of its existing infrastructure. Leveraging in-house expertise with BMC systems minimised disruption during the migration process, while BMC Helix ITSM’s containerised architecture established a scalable foundation for future growth.

Stephan Groth further emphasises the system’s importance: “Helix ITSM is the heart of everything in MAHLE IT. When coordinating KPIs or generating reports for continuous improvement, we look to our BMC solutions. It’s responsible for holding and authoring all customer-facing processes. We also use it for change management and problem management, making it the heart of our core IT operations. It processes everything related to IT, and all relevant tasks are intentionally put on this system. We’ve established a foundation in BMC Helix for information about the company, IT, and our infrastructure. For any process that requires coordination, KPIs, and reporting for continuous improvement, we always look to BMC Helix ITSM first and often rely on its solutions.”

Helix ITSM is the heart of everything in MAHLE IT. When coordinating KPIs or generating reports for continuous improvement, we look to our BMC solutions.
Stephan Groth
Director Global Enterprise Architecture Management | MAHLE

The Results

The migration to a containerised ITSM solution delivered significant benefits for MAHLE:

  • Enhanced Functionality: MAHLE gained access to the latest features and capabilities of BMC Helix ITSM, including Helix Dashboards and DWP Studio pages.
  • Enhanced Efficiency: Containerisation streamlined application provisioning and drastically reduced upgrade times by 90%, cutting the process from over 100 days to just 5–10 days.
  • Improved User Experience: The upgraded solution provided MAHLE employees with a more modern and user-friendly interface.
  • Improved Business Continuity: The scalable containerised architecture enabled MAHLE to easily adapt the system to fluctuating demands.
  • Reliable 24/7 IT Services: The new system ensured rock-solid IT services supporting continuous operations across MAHLE’s global network, reducing production downtime to just three weekends per year.
  • Increased Automation: MAHLE successfully automated 33% of IT service requests through self-service functionality.
  • Strong Governance: A cross-functional team played a crucial role in ensuring collaboration across departments, facilitating a smooth and efficient ITSM upgrade.

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