Introduction
UYT has upgraded its IFS business management system to improve focus on business integration and automation. Additional IFS components have been deployed, enabling the company to take advantage of more advanced functionality.
A fresh start
After implementing IFS Applications in 2002, sales turnover increased from £6 million to over £66 million by the end of 2004. To consolidate this growth UYT needed to realign its business process to focus on business centers. The board wanted lean structures and business systems to automate back office, shop floor control and supply chain management. IFS was a key enabler to this restructuring. “An effective ERP is crucial to business today. By making a fresh start we were able to make sure that everybody understood the importance of doing it properly, which means deploying the IFS system as an integral part of the way we do business,” explains Finance & IT Director, Maureen Hawkins. Based on experience from the original implementation, the IT department was positioned as facilitators rather than the prime movers in the project. John Greaves, Deputy MD said, “ERP touches every aspect of the business, so all our senior managers were required to take ownership and have a hands-on role.” UYT also reviewed its future information management requirements. By starting again, the company could use fresh data, unencumbered by the accumulated legacy of historical records. It was also decided that only active part numbers would be transferred into the new database. The clean out of data was a key element of the success of the program.
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Quick Reference Guides
Preparation also included a major exercise to review and define all of the company’s operating procedures. To do this the company introduced a technique based on quick reference guides (QRG) to ensure that all of the key processes were covered with appropriate system support.
Planning & Control of the Program
To keep the reimplementation on track an executive steering team was set up representing all of the key functional areas within the company. Working back from the proposed go live date, a road map was drawn up, setting out the goals for four progressive conference room pilot stages. Key activities covered: - IFS module deployment identification
- Process mapping & QRG development
- Data cleanse, verification & new data creation
- Data transfers
- Conference room pilots & reviews
- Cutover
- Post go live support
- Additional, new IFS module investigation deployment
Priorities for the target modules were set by a series of joint workshops. The policy was to deploy components that cover all basic business functionality and only extend a few new components at this stage. Having got all the QRGs signed off the next step was to look at the data that was being put through and how this related to the respective functions within the IFS system. Says Maureen Hawkins, “In effect this was following the process through to creating the functional path. This demonstrated that the new system would do everything that was required, removing any doubts about its capabilities and the scope of its functionality.”
Conference Room Pilots (CRP)
The conference room pilots were used to test the critical, basic business functionality. The CRPs were manned by cross-functional teams from the business with support from the IT department. The process raised a considerable number of issues. A detailed log of all these issues was compiled and after each conference this was reviewed systematically with IFS. For John Greaves the ‘issues’ log is critical to highlighting potential “show stoppers” and provides a means for allowing the business to manage each of these through to resolutions. Maureen Hawkins sees the conference room pilots as instrumental in keeping the implementation on track. As issues arose the team focused the solutions and targeted the resources required to achieve a solution in good time.
IFS 2004 in Operation
IFS has become the basic standard, underpinning the company’s key business processes. As a tier 1 supplier to Honda, UYT’s production is geared to its customers’ requirements. Functionality such as the customer schedules component enables UYT to plan production against the customers’ call off requirements, and deploy a strategy of ‘push, pull and visual systems’ to ensure the shop floor runs properly and efficiently.
Greater Visibility
UYT managers now have greater visibility than was possible previously over various strategic areas, such as the manufacturing environment, supply chain status and cost control. “We have dispelled the myth that manufacturing is a black art,” says Maureen Hawkins. “We can see that a department has produced this quantity of parts, for this number of standard hours and during this amount of time, therefore efficiency is a mathematical calculation. By integrating time and attendance into the production process, this measurement can be fully automated. These systems will help target inefficiencies”
Future Development
UYT is exploiting the component architecture of IFS Applications to develop the overall IT infrastructure and capability step by step at a relatively low risk to the business. “We can focus on specific benefits and realize each of these with much more certainty than with fall-out from a ‘big bang’ approach,” says Maureen Hawkins. One example will be the implementation of the IFS Maintenance component. Work has started on integrating HR, manufacturing and financials. Preparations are also underway for interfacing the time and attendance element with payroll and financials software. Maureen Hawkins sees the future direction moving towards business center profitability. “One of the things we want to be able to look at product profitability and business center profitability in a degree of detail that you could not do without an effective integrated ERP system.” Maureen Hawkins concludes, “Above all this has been an investment in the way we do business. With IFS we now have a business tool to ensure we can make the right management decisions about profitability, productivity, and future development.”
Benefits
- Greater visibility over manufacturing, supply chain management, and cost control
- Better able to target inefficiencies
- Step-by-step, low-risk implementation
- More accurate management decisions concerning profitability and productivity
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About UYT Based in Coventry, U.K., UYT Ltd.was established in 1996 as a joint venture to supply Body In White (BIW) components to Honda UK Manufacturing. UYT produces a range of pressed parts, structural underbody fabrications and sunroof assemblies. “With IFS we now have a business tool to ensure we can make the right management decisions about profitability, productivity, and future development.” Maureen Hawkins, Finance & IT Director, UYT
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