 Case
Study: ERP Solution for a Manufacturing Concern
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Industry: Manufacturing (Polypet)
Products and Technologies used: Borland Delphi and Interbase
Company: Agni Software Private Limited.
 Background
One of the leading polypet manufacturing enterprise in India
wanted to integrate all the department functions so that the
efficiency of the organisation as a whole could be improved.
The competition factor in the business environment has made
many manufacturing companies to have a strong system in place
and many organisations have realised the importance of IT
as a strategic tool to achieve competitive advantage, this
organisation is one of them. This company wanted to have an
effective pre sales module, which could include costing and
feasibility till the despatch of goods. Since the competition
is becoming fierce day-by-day, every one wants to be a price
leader and wants to increase the customer base and loyalty.
For this, enterprise should achieve the least production cost
and better quality over other players in this industry.
This organisation wanted to integrate various departmental
functions and wanted to have a strong Enterprise Resource
Planning system in place in order to achieve competitive advantage
over others.
The
Challenge
This Industry works backwards (i.e. starts with having packing
material ready, then the accessories like cap, label etc.,
to be ready and then start the manufacturing of the actual
jar/ bottle.). The other challenges are with the lead management
where the leads information is to be captured so that the
feasibility analysis could also be done. The production planning
process has to be in the reverse manner. The delivery time
with schedules and the logistics management was the most challenging
solutions that were required. The effectiveness of packing
and the loadability of the goods to the Vehicle/Containers
were also most complicated.
Since these industries provide poly pet packing solutions
to original equipment manufacturers (OEM’s), it’s
very important to maintain stringent quality standards and
delivery time schedules. The importance of matching the demand
and supply of OEM’s is crucial as the productivity of
the clients depends on the material supplied by them. Since
the main clients for these industries are OEM’s, sometimes
the customers supply many of their goods and handling these
goods requires special treatment in terms of Inventory Management.
Not all are customers are OEM’s; these industries will
also have their own models or package solutions which can
be sold in the market.
Hence combination of stock based and made to order manufacturing
concept is also prevalent and the ERP system should handle
both methods. Machine handling is also important in this industry
and this includes not only machines but also the moulds. The
life of the moulds and its management, machine performance
with maintenance of machines was also to be managed in the
system. Overall the system should be flexible and user friendly
to incorporate changes in the business process in the future.
The
Solution
Agni Software provided a scalable, integrated ERP Solution
so that all the challenges mentioned could be managed. The
system is highly integrated to all the different department
functions like the Production Department, Purchase Department,
Finance and Accounts department, Sales and Marketing department,
Machine Maintenance Department, Inventory Management and to
the Quality Control Department. Since the system is integrated,
all the departments can communicate effectively with no confusions
and the efficiency of the organisation is improved.
The following modules were provided to this organisation:
-
Pre- Sales Module: This module takes
care of Leads and activities for a particular lead.
This captures required information of leads or prospects
like Lead details, source of the lead, Executives follow
up details, contact details, profile of the lead (like
Business category, Number of employees, credit rating-by
the lead vendors, financial details etc.,) product details
(enquired product and also products which can be targeted
in future) and their current supplier. This information
is very useful in terms of Marketing Intelligence.
-
Production Module: This module was
designed to handle all the activities of the production
department. Tools like Bill of Material (BOM), Production
Planning, Work Order, Material Requirement Planning
(MRP), Process definition, Program Execution etc., have
been provided to optimise the resources and to increase
the productivity.
-
Costing Module: The costing module
is used extensively in pre sales and for production
-
Purchase Module: Order processing
with different schedules, indent generation, Goods Receipt
Note (GRN) and purchase invoice have been provided.
-
Inventory Management: As explained
earlier management of inventory is very different in
these industries, all the required tools have been provided.
-
Sales and Marketing Module: Sales
order processing (including Schedules) right from sales
quotation to the sales invoice has been designed in
the system.
-
Finance and Accounts Module: Accounts
Payable (AP), Accounts Receivable (AR), General Ledger
(GL), Budgeting, Cost Centres all types of vouchers,
Aging Analysis, etc., are some of the features of this
module. Also note that since the system is integrated,
the sales and purchase transactions are updated in this
module. This module also covers TDS and Excise.
-
Machine Maintenance Module: The maintenance
of Machine and Tools are handled in this module. Machine
performance along with the history of Maintenance, maintenance
(Preventive and Breakdown) are also handled in this
module.
-
Management Information System (MIS):
This is a very important tool for any of the organisation.
All the modules have extensive reporting and analysis
to help the executives and the management to know the
performance of each and every department in general
and the organisation as a whole in particular. The system
is designed to help to take strategic and tactical decisions
of the organisation.
-
QC Module: A simple QC module is designed
so that all incoming and despatch goods are of required
quality standards and QC for the production.
Overall the system provided is simple and flexible and the
transactions have been simplified and integrated. The system
is able to handle all the challenges in this industry with
respect to software.
Results
The solution provided is simple, scalable, and secure. The
organisation is able to see some changes in terms of efficiency
of various departments and hopes to see the efficiency of
the organisation as a whole in a matter of few months. |
