Ace Designers, Ltd.
ERP reduces manufacturing costs by 20% for industrial equipment
manufacturer
Overview
Since 1987, Ace Designers Limited, India’s leading manufacturer of CNC
lathes and auto lathes, has been exporting machines all around the world,
including Brazil, Germany, United Kingdom and the United States. But with
growth, their largely manual systems started breaking down. They had no
centralized purchasing department or means of sharing information so
groups were paying different amounts for the same part from the same
vendor. Delivery dates were missed because of lack of inventory control,
and top management had so little visibility to the manufacturing process
they couldn’t set pricing that was competitive.
The Challenge
Ace needed a complete information system built around an ERP solution
that would help manage every aspect of their manufacturing process — from
purchasing and inventory to manufacturing and planning — as well as
prepare them for ISO certification.
The Solution
Ace commissioned a comprehensive survey of the ERP market and Intuitive
was selected for four major reasons: 1) a 100 percent Microsoft platform,
2) an easy-to-use graphical interface, 3) excellent support, and 4)
scalable open-architecture features that permitted the addition of users
at any time.
The consultants that evaluated Intuitive ERP and its competitors for
Ace Designers concluded:
“Intuitive ERP is easy to install, interface, customize, and maintain.
It can be integrated seamlessly into any manufacturing environment and has
a good scheduling flexibility and versatile options. It also has a
definite ISO 9000 facilitation orientation.”
Ace Designer’s Results
Ace started module-wise implementation of Intuitive ERP in four phases,
which were completed in just four months.
Intuitive ERP’s graphical interface and integration with Microsoft
Office and Access made it easy for Ace’s staff — who prior to this had
virtually no computer experience — to learn and use the new system. And
using Microsoft SQL Server as the database engine delivered the speed and
robustness necessary for their mission-critical applications.
“We transformed the company from a practically nil computer culture to
a total computerized system,” said V. Chandra, General Manager of Ace.
“The learning curve for Intuitive ERP is reduced to well below that of
other manufacturing systems because of graphical and interactive flow
charts and complete context-sensitive online help.”
Implementing Intuitive ERP has led to dramatic improvements in every
operational area:
- Managers now have the most current inventory and costing models
available to them at all times, so they can set competitive pricing that
ensures profitability as well. They are also able to monitor online the
status of work orders for components, sub-assemblies and final
assemblies.
- Planning has improved. With the previous manual planning system, it
was difficult to coordinate customer requirements and design changes
with production and assembly functions to meet the manufacturing
schedule. Now there is seamless coordination between all departments
while significantly reducing planning headcount.
- Prior to Intuitive ERP, there had been virtually no inventory
management at Ace; information on non-moving or slow-moving items and
stock values was unavailable. With the new tools in place, manufacturing
inventory has been reduced by 20 percent.
- With reports such as Purchase Price Variance, there is visibility of
the cost of every purchased item. This has resulted in better price
negotiation with suppliers resulting in a 20 percent price reduction.
- Intuitive ERP provides accurate data for making manufacturing
decisions through reports that include online machine utilization,
online work order status monitoring, online WIP components costing,
online WIP sub-assembly costing and online labor utilization.
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Challenges