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Getting ERP best value
It’s not so much about looking under the covers: getting best value from ERP today is less about functionality and more about proper business analysis, good old-fashioned ITTs and due diligence, says Brian Tinham |
29/09/2007
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Lean supply chain
There was a time when e-business was for the big boys. But Howard Joseph of McGuffie Brunton tells Brian Tinham that the doors are now wide open for manufacturing SMEs |
11/04/2007
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Seeing is believing
Current thinking is encouraging investment in production systems that can improve company-wide visibility and flexibility, as well as factory performance. It’s about enabling more agile business able to respond more quickly and positively to customers’ changing requirements, market trends and new opportunities – as well as delivering manufacturing efficiencies and cost cutting. In short, systems that don’t just optimise at the plant level or take care of supply chain operations and events, although both remain important, but that facilitate joined-up business decision-making and actions. There are several types of system that go some way to fitting the bill, but for me – given the nature of most manufacturers’ existing ERP installations and the prevalence of MRPII for planning, alongside a mix of spreadsheets and shop floor data collection (SFDC) and production management systems handling the rest – APS (advanced planning and scheduling) systems remain among the most compelling. |
15/01/2007
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Setting the IT agenda for your business in 2007
What’s hot? What’s not? Who cares? What matters to management teams running the various aspects of increasingly stretched and complex manufacturing companies today has nothing whatever to do with what analysts, journalists or anyone else see as ‘hot’, ‘in’ or ‘fashionable’. The primary concern is simply keeping the operation going, cutting costs and attempting to get production better and smarter – meaning faster, more efficient, more flexible and the rest of it. Brian Tinham talks to senior users in manufacturing for some serious clues |
28/11/2006
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Go for a much, much better lean
Many manufacturers are struggling to get their lean/APS (advanced planning and scheduling) and Heijunka strategies right because of the pressures they are under to conform to practices that, according to Preactor International’s technical director Graham Hackwell, are too proscriptive and, frankly, just not working. |
28/11/2006
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Cosworth makes team working world class
Northampton-based race engine developer Cosworth has created a common information window for engineering, purchasing and suppliers that’s transformed its business operations. The firm implemented Documentum’s eRoom, initially for exchanging CAD information but is now enabling collaboration with customers and suppliers way beyond design. According to Cosworth head of business systems Jeremy Hill, the system, which has about 200 users internally and 100 customers and suppliers, is delivering huge benefits. “Things are so much more organised and clear. It would be a shock to see how much we’ve saved: for example, it’s probably more than doubled the effectiveness of our processes.” |
04/10/2006
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Lean thinking flies on wireless technologies
Airbus UK’s materials management and logistics department in Filton was highly commended for its use of mobile technology to strip out vast amounts of waste and time. In fact, the company achieved full return on its IT investment within weeks of implementing the systems – and is now set to take a considerably wider wireless initiative even further. David Herbert, business improvement change agent, says this implementation was part of Airbus UK’s Route ’06 programme, looking for productivity gains and cost savings. He started with mobile technology in stock and WIP (work in progress) auditing, which used to be performed manually several times a year, taking 20 people and 100 man-hours at overtime rates. Peak Technologies supplied Symbol mobile handhelds, and the result of scanning and uploading data to the site SAP system was a transformation. |
04/10/2006
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Distilling the secrets of a spirited success
Whisky producer Ian Macleod Distillers, deserves its place here, not only for its products, which include Glengoyne and Isle of Skye, but for an ERP implementation that turned two companies around, and has already saved £500,000 worth of finished goods and materials stocks – at least equal to the cost of the entire implementation and with another £1 million of savings still in sight. |
28/09/2006
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Labels maker finds key to standardising variety
Improved productivity – all the way from estimating and quoting to production and shipping – and greatly enhanced global business visibility from a new ERP system impressed the panel at £35m labels manufacturer Worldmark International. |
27/09/2006
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Consolidated global processes to gain growth
Precision components and assemblies manufacturer Doncasters was highly commended for its impressive work with ERP to deliver faster, more accurate quotation turnarounds, which have in turn increased sales and margins, improved on-time delivery, enhanced planning and allowed stockholdings to reduce. |
26/09/2006
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Smartening its act on manufacturing business
£8m turnover plastics injection-moulding manufacturer Hi-Tech Mouldings says one of the keys to this success was re-thinking and integrating its sales, production and supply chain operations, initially using an Infor Visual ERP system and, most recently, augmenting it with Visual Business Intelligence. |
26/09/2006
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Lean success with lean systems
Adding value, cutting costs, improving service: we’ve all got to do them, and lean and IT are the best mechanisms. Brian Tinham reports from the Association for Manufacturing Excellence conference on enabling and improving lean systems |
24/08/2006
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Platflorm one for the lean bandwagon
You’re going to need all the help you can get if you want your lean business transformation to go well. Book onto the Best of British Manufacturing IT Conference now |
17/08/2006
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Special report: Lean and agile thinking - appropriate IT for successful manufacturing businesses
The application of lean concepts, methodologies and supporting tools, techniques and systems to whole businesses, not just to the factory – continues to grow in popularity. As manufacturers experience worsening competitive pressures from rivals in the UK as well as those around the world, management teams seem to be realising that, while ‘going lean’ is neither trivial nor short and sharp, it’s the only way they’re going to survive and hopefully revive their fortunes.
This report examines what’s working, how well, where and under what circumstances. It looks at current preferred lean initiatives across manufacturing industry and across different departments – the choices, uptake, barriers and outcomes – with statistics derived from a comprehensive online survey conducted for Manufacturing Computer Solutions. Importantly, it provides detailed analysis of relevant IT uptake, appropriate application and potential benefits. |
16/08/2006
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Your guide to choosing and implementing ERP (and similar) systems
Nobody looks forward to a serious business IT project, and that applies whether you're installing a new ERP system (or similar), or `simply' upgrading or changing an existing one. It's hard work. It comes on top of the already demanding day job. Yet the success of your company depends upon it. And not just now but for many years to come. What's more, everyone has heard a horror story or two from someone. No surprise then that many are cynical as well as daunted.
But it doesn't have to be like that. Times, systems, functionality and, most important, methodologies and support, have all moved on immensely in recent years. And so has the body of understanding of hype, blind alleys and on the other hand, opportunities and best practice. So it is now perfectly possible to turn what might well once have been an unrewarding slog (likely to end in failure) into a structured project with manageable milestones and relatively quick wins for the
business along the way. Here's how to do it right, keep your workforce sane and on your side, and save serious time and money into the bargain. Do this and you'll also get as rapidly as possible to a project that will be judged a success not just
at the time but into the future and business-wide. |
25/07/2006
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Make this your online home page
www.mcsolutions.co.uk has been massively upgraded. Brian Tinham test drives the amazing new free online resource for news, reference and supplier information covering all of IT for all of manufacturing and engineering industry |
14/07/2006
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Printer presses ahead on integrated ERP and CAD
Flexographic printing presses manufacturer Edale, in Romsey,
Hants, has gone live with a new Syspro ERP system from K3,
including advanced planning and scheduling (APS) and e-business. |
26/06/2006
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Art meets science in glorious technicolour
Advanced planning and scheduling systems and lean thinking aren't often bracketed together, but ColArt paints a picture of perfect harmony. Brian Tinham reports |
19/06/2006
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Good ERP should be centre stage
Far from a bit-part, CommaTECH shows why ERP should play a central role in your manufacturing. Annie Gregory reports |
09/06/2006
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Looking out for the art of the possible
ICT (information and communication technology) is too diverse and fast-changing to take for granted. Brian Tinham romps through the state of the art for manufacturing and engineering companies – and some of the implications for IT strategy |
04/06/2006
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Mission critical
With the world’s most demanding requirements for maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO), digital design collaboration and track-and-trace, the aerospace and defence sector has it all. Brian Tinham looks at the issues and their solutions |
11/04/2006
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So how good is your planning?
Fire fighting may have a lot going for it from the personal perspective, but it’s no way to run a business. Brian Tinham examines the roles and scope for modern planning and scheduling systems in enabling and underpinning lean initiatives |
11/04/2006
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