With constantly increasing competition, today’s manufacturers seek new ways to boost efficiency, lower their costs to drive success. Infor ERP solutions are one option that’s making a difference for some leading companies.
Infor offers end-to-end, cloud-enabled solutions for manufacturers of highly configurable products, designed to meet the unique challenges of these companies. Infor products are able to scale with customers and enable digital transformation. Here are two case study examples of successful Infor solutions implementations for leading manufacturers, conducted by Ultra Consultants.
In this post, we’ll explore two industry-specific Infor ERP implementation case studies highlighting two customer experiences on the road to improved business processes, greater efficiency, and increased data visibility through modern Infor Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solutions, setting the stage for growth. If you’re an operations manager looking to optimize business processes, or an IT professional curious about what Infor ERP can bring to your manufacturing company, read on to discover how Ultra Consultants helped these leading companies achieve true business transformation, beyond just software solutions.
First up, let’s look at how Ultra helped a make-to-order manufacturer recover from a failed ERP implementation, transform their business and bring multiple systems and processes into one solution.
KNOX MACHINE COMPANY Selects Infor Visual Enterprise ERP
Business Transformation and ERP for Make-to-Order Manufacturing and Machining Company
Located in Warren, along the coast of Maine, Knox Machine Company is a make-to-order (MTO) machining operation that provides precision, close-tolerance machined parts, mechanical sub-assemblies, and pre-packaged component kits. The manufacturing and strategic supplier serves numerous industries, including the defense, communications, oil and gas, aircraft/aerospace, power generation, and plastics industries. For more than 40 years, Knox Machine has been providing high-quality, close-tolerance machining.
Among the company’s capabilities are:
- Multi-axis CNC and conventional machining
- Prototype, short-run and production machining
- Supply chain management, including all secondary outside processes
- Raw materials and/or finished parts inventory, as required
Because of the nature of the industries they serve, Knox Machine customers require the highest quality standards to fit exacting specifications. Robust quality control, stringent inspection processes, and material traceability processes are essential for the ERP solution chosen by this make-to-order manufacturer.
Legacy and Disjointed Systems Cause Headaches for Knox Machine
Before working with Ultra, the company’s processes consisted of an awkward combination of a homegrown legacy software package, Excel for inventory control and reporting functions, and various manual processes for material planning and shop floor execution. The company also used a separate accounting software package for financials (general ledger, accounts payable, accounts receivable) with another solution for quoting, order entry, purchasing, shipping and job costing.
The company had outgrown its cobbled-together system and found that data did not easily move from one business process to another, requiring multiple entries of the same data. Lacking was an integrated view of the business in real-time and had no true process flow among the stand-alone systems. All manufacturing planning and execution was paper-based, leaving the door open for human error. Furthermore, it simply could not access the data needed for projections and business forecasting. As a pertinent example, employees keyed in the same part numbers multiple times over and over again just to get them entered correctly into the system, causing frustration and inefficiency.
Business Transformation: More Than Just Software
Sensing the need for an integrated all-in-one solution, Knox Machine had initially selected an ERP solution and put a great deal of work into it; however, after laboring over the deployment process for many months, the implementation failed.
Knox Machine ultimately realized that the process of selecting and deploying a successful ERP solution involved more than just dropping in a software package to be implemented by a small core group. It involved significant business transformation from the front office to the back-office operations with across the board buy-in by all employees.
Ultra aided the education and buy-in process right from the start. Employees saw how serious Ultra Consultants were about improving the business processes and realized how successful the future state could be.
Ultra began work with the team at Knox Machine and showed that their current state was not ideal and wouldn’t result in a better business model that would provide a good ROI. In addition to entirely revising the failed plan, Ultra helped Knox Machine recoup some of the costs from the failed ERP implementation.
Jon Maxcy, Vice President at Knox Machine, commented on the difficultly of initially understanding ERP software demonstrations, concepts and terminology, before Ultra’s education and process mapping services:
“The first time we went through a vendor demo, it was like watching a foreign movie of two squirrels with no subtitles. You never know what they’re doing or where they’re going, and you don’t understand it.”
A Six-Month Plan: Assess Current State, Educate, and Analyze Future State
Over a six-month period, Ultra Consultants led Knox Machine through their ERP technology identification, selection and business process improvement phases. Integral to this plan were the current state documentation process, education and crafting the future state possibilities and requirements, following Ultra’s business transformation roadmap.
The Ultra consultant designed the demo script for the ERP vendors to follow to showcase the features inherent in each solution that matched Knox Machine’s identified needs. This was a significant departure from the company’s earlier experience with ERP vendor demos.
With Ultra, clients are assured that the vendor is accountable to the project success and that resources are vetted ahead of time, so the right competencies and capabilities are brought to the table every step of the way.
The ERP Selection
Following vendor demos, Knox Machine selected Infor Visual Enterprise, a cloud-based ERP. The order-driven functionality targeted and matched Knox’s goals. Mr. Maxcy stated that, as a job shop that moves hundreds of jobs through the plant each week, the team found the solution easy to use. They appreciated the consistency of information displayed across screens, as well as the way the engineering masters and work orders are built and presented on-screen.
Results and Recommendations
With their make-to-order manufacturing and Infor ERP system in place, Knox Machine has experienced positive results:
- 40 percent improvement in reporting.
- Elimination of data manipulation within the shop.
- Reduction of hours required per order from two hours to two minutes. Knox Machine required system flexibility to handle their customer kitting business.
- Improved shipping execution, no longer having to rely on internal, personnel-based knowledge to ship their products.
- Automated planning and scheduling replaced manual systems.
The Knox Machine team felt that Ultra had fulfilled its role as a trusted advisor throughout the entire project. Budget constraints meant Knox was not able to continue working with Ultra upon implementation following the ERP selection process. However, the Ultra team continued informal dialogue with Knox providing advice and answering questions.
Knox Machine continues to transform its business as it works with the software solution. Data transparency has given the company better knowledge of areas needing improvement where they can increase profitability.
Mr. Maxcy offered this endorsement of Ultra Consultants and the company’s positive return on investment:
“Ultra prepared us very well for the ERP selection and implementation of the ERP project, from a current state, education, and future state standpoint. It was well worth our investment in Ultra, in their content and processes, for the long-term at Knox Machine.”
Download the full Knox Machine case study here.
Now let’s take a look at how Ultra helped IPSEN USA set the stage for growth with a modern ERP system.
IPSEN USA Upgrades Infor Syteline ERP Solution
Ultra’s Project Leadership Keeps Ipsen Moving with Infor
Ipsen USA, headquartered in Cherry Valley, IL designs and manufactures industrial vacuum furnaces, atmosphere furnaces and supervisory control systems. Founded in 1948, Ipsen supports a wide variety of thermal processing markets including: Aerospace, Commercial Heat Treating, Medical, Energy, Medical, Automotive, and Tool and Die It leads the industry in thermal processing technology. Multiple business entities and international facilities make up Ipsen Global, with production locations in America, Europe and Asia, and representation in 34 countries.
Because Ipsen had been operating on an old legacy system, they were impeded in their ability to grow and expand their business, due to the company’s lack of industry best practices and the constraints of their legacy software’s capabilities.
Ipsen Project Environment
Ipsen had been running a legacy version of Infor’s Syteline product, originally implemented in 1999 and not upgraded since 2007. This placed the system on an older technology platform, lacking a modern user interface and capabilities that are inherent in more current systems. The system also lacked in several key functional areas, most notably advanced forecasting, project management, product configurator, and its capabilities to efficiently support multiple plant environments.
Ultra’s evaluation plan led off with an evaluation of the most current version of Infor’s SyteLine product in conjunction with reviewing alternative systems in the market. Ipsen was current in their maintenance agreement with Infor, so had the option to upgrade without incremental license fees.
Reasons for Change
The primary reasons for Ipsen’s transformation of their legacy systems lie in establishing a platform for growth to scale the business. The company wished to provide easier and better access to information, establish a single integrated system, improve communications and information flow with other systems, plus enable enhanced business processes.
Management recognized that information accuracy of business metrics and reports were lacking and should be tied to a “single source of truth”, as operations were growing and becoming more diverse. Significant savings would be realized in both the elimination or reduction of manual processes and management would gain faster and more confident decision making and greater accuracy in reporting.
Selected ERP Solution
Ipsen chose to upgrade their ERP system from Infor Syteline v5 to the most current version. As part of Ultra’s services, a business case was created to determine if a full system selection should be pursued versus an upgrade within the existing product family. Pursuing the upgrade path within the Infor-Syteline product family was primarily due to the following two factors:
- The Syteline product is a solid solution for mid-market manufacturing companies, consistent with Ipsen’s business model. Ultra arrived at that conclusion based on our industry expertise, and our understanding of the product versus other competitive ERP solutions.
- Ipsen had sustained their maintenance with Infor, allowing for a 1-for-1 exchange to the upgraded current licenses without additional charge.
Ultra’s leadership of the project was critical to its success, according to Ipsen:
“Ultra’s experience in establishing the budget in advance and then standing firm in delivering the negotiations within budget was a huge success factor. The formal steering team updates and risk mitigation activities and insight was a critical enabler to ensure everyone was on the same page and that the project priority was appropriately maintained.”
Value, Objectives Met with Ultra
Ultra acquired an understanding of Ipsen’s business operations and future aspirations. This allowed our resources to represent the Production Manager’s role within the project team, allowing the Production Manager to keep up with day-to-day operations. Additionally, during implementation, Ultra provided necessary staff augmentation to organize Ipsen’s master files and operations where we provided project management organization and diligence to keep the project on-track:
“What your consultant did to insert himself into the team and deliver value was outstanding. His business knowledge and credibility in the production activities was a key to drive improvements and establish credibility. He took the lead responsibility for data management and cleansing which proved instrumental in keeping the project on track to satisfy the piloting activities.”
With the new Syteline system in place, many manual steps have been eliminated through automation, and activities are more efficient. Ipsen expects that value and improvement will continue well beyond the initial go-live period. For Ipsen, work instructions are proving to be beneficial in reducing the “back-and-forth to find answers” and helping people do their job. There are far less IT help desk tickets to manage, and Ipsen has regrouped its core team to continue to improve documentation and revisit processes to seek further improvements.
Additionally, Ipsen has established a permanent process improvement team that will identify and drive continuous improvement opportunities. This team is focused on ensuring the sustained project value and seeking new opportunities with ongoing quarterly process reviews.
Download the full Ipsen case study here.
Put Ultra's Experience to Work for You
Today’s ERP systems, including those from Infor, impact manufacturing companies by boosting efficiency throughout operations, making supply chain management easier, and driving informed decision-making. An Ultra Consultants makes selecting and implementing the right ERP easier.
Ultra’s technology expertise, industry experience, today’s best practices for manufacturing and distribution operations, and our proven methodology can help your organization realize the benefits of modern enterprise technologies and see bottom-line results. To put our experience to work for you, request your free discovery call today.
