In previous years the company was handicapped by an old legacy system that did not meet the needs of a growing diversified manufacturing company.
The legacy system did not provide multi-site support, WIP control, easy user access to information, and flexible production scheduling capabilities.
Before working with Ultra’s team of independent ERP consultants, 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.
Spirent Communications had acquired 5 companies in 5 different locations: California, Hawaii, Canada, New Jersey, and London. Adtech, the Hawaiian company was growing at 100% a year and was operating on a number of Tier III disparate systems.
A legacy software system was in place that primarily supported the telemarketing efforts of the in-house sales organization. The system used an outdated database and was eventually ported to a Linux operation system.
At the time of engagement with Ultra, the company was hindered by several stand-alone legacy systems in 8 different global facilities across 3 continents.
Business users were creating their own process improvement projects and custom-built tools to address deficiencies.
There were dozens of independent process initiatives with limited visibility and duplication.
Copperweld was forced into a position of borrowing convertible raw materials from various production runs to meet spikes in demand in another production line.
Copperweld’s Materials Resource Planning (MRP) system did not support visualization of the stock outs or inventory fluctuations that resulted from these practices.
