Please note that the InterForm products InterForm400 and InterFormNG2 are marketed as ArtForm400 and ArtFormNG in North America. The products, besides the naming, are identical and carry 100% the same functionality, including documentation. For more information or questions, please contact us at feedback@interform400.com.
BIRN Group is one of Northern Europe’s largest foundry groups, producing high-quality cast iron components for the automotive and industrial sectors. Headquartered in Holstebro, Denmark, the group operates in six countries and employs around 750 people. With more than a century of experience and five fully automated moulding lines, BIRN delivers over 45,000 tons of cast iron annually to customers in commercial vehicles, construction equipment, hydraulics, and machine components. Sustainability and traceability are central to the company’s production processes.
Operating a multi-site manufacturing environment on Infor M3, BIRN faced long-standing challenges with document output. Their previous output tool contained extensive custom logic, making troubleshooting difficult and time-consuming. Errors were often hidden within the old setup, meaning underlying data issues in M3 were harder to detect and correct.
Many of BIRN’s customers — including but not limited to automotive — require precise traceability information such as lot numbers and casting dates. Ensuring this level of accuracy across multiple companies, each with its own operational nuances, added further complexity.
BIRN needed a modern, reliable solution that simplified output handling, strengthened data correctness, and reduced day-to-day dependency on IT while supporting a standardised, group-wide approach.
After evaluating several options, BIRN selected InterformNG2 for its proven integration with Infor M3 and for the confidence of working with a Danish supplier that understands their industry and systems landscape. The implementation was carried out in partnership with Columbus and began in 2023, starting with the most complex customer-facing documents such as invoices, order confirmations, delivery notes, and later purchase orders.
These documents required detailed testing to ensure that critical traceability fields — including lot numbers and casting dates — were always correct. During the process, the team simplified and standardised layouts, aligning them with BIRN’s branding and removing unnecessary elements inherited from older designs.
A major improvement came from InterformNG2 drawing data directly from M3. Issues that had previously been hidden inside legacy output logic became visible, allowing BIRN to correct data at the source and strengthen the quality of information within the ERP system. Business users can now make many adjustments themselves, reducing day-to-day IT involvement and speeding up updates across the organisation.
Interform’s continuously updated VDA and industry-standard templates were also an important factor in BIRN’s decision. They provide a reliable foundation for producing labels and documents in the formats required by automotive customers and their downstream processes, helping BIRN supply the information those customers need for their own documentation and compliance work, without adding extra maintenance for the team.
BIRN has already seen clear efficiency gains. Error searching is now far easier, as data is taken directly from M3 rather than being processed through layers of custom logic in the old system. Issues that previously took significant time to identify can now be resolved quickly and at the source.
The business can make many updates themselves, reducing day-to-day reliance on IT and speeding up changes to customer-facing documents. Document layouts are cleaner and more consistent, improving both internal usability and the experience for customers who rely on accurate traceability information.
“Interform has made it much easier for us to understand where data comes from and to correct errors. Fixing issues directly in M3 has been one of the biggest improvements for us.” — Emma Bastrup Knude, Project Manager, BIRN Group
Across the organisation, output handling is now simpler, faster and aligned with a more modern, standardised approach.
BIRN sees the move to InterformNG2 as the foundation for a long-term modernisation of output across the group. The next phase focuses on bringing internal documents—such as payment reminders, picking lists and return-to-supplier forms—into Interform, using more standard templates and a faster implementation cycle than the initial rollout.
The team is also progressing with automotive-related outputs, including VDA labels and other formats required by customers in the sector. With Interform continually maintaining and updating these templates, BIRN can rely on a strong foundation for producing the information their customers need for their own documentation and compliance processes, without the manual upkeep previously required.
With Interform delivered to BIRN as a cloud-based, well-supported solution, the organisation also gains flexibility in how it develops its setup going forward. Over time, BIRN expects to reduce the amount of time spent on non-value activities linked to output preparation, moving toward a unified, reliable and scalable setup for all document output.
“Choosing Interform gave us a supported, future-ready solution and a partner we could rely on. It made good sense for us.” — David Stampe Grønborg, Group IT Manager, BIRN Group
“Compared to our old setup, it’s so much easier to adjust layouts and work with the data. Even the business can make changes now, instead of everything depending on IT.” — Emma Bastrup Knude
“Having updated VDA templates is a big benefit for us. It means we always have the formats our automotive customers expect, without having to maintain everything ourselves.” — Emma Bastrup Knude
