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According to Worldmark’s Business Systems Director, Alan Martin, “Our strategy is to supply our customers locally in the countries in which they operate. We pride ourselves in our flexibility and ability to respond quickly and effectively to our customers’ needs and, as we continue to grow, we need the capabilities of an effective ERP system to help us maintain our competitive edge.” By definition each new customer order is a design commission, encompassing material specification, production technology and finished product quality. The main challenge in selling such a capability is being able to give sales advisers a tool that will enable labels to be created, priced, manufactured and shipped locally, while maintaining global standards. Worldmark’s legacy systems—developed independently—were incapable of meeting the future needs of an expanding international organization. A multi-site, multi-currency and multilanguage capability was a prerequisite. IFS not only met these requirements, but it also provided the best fit for the business going forward. Estimating New Jobs and Quotations
“Our legacy system was highly bespoke and shaped to the company over the years, so introducing a more generic package was also as an opportunity to review business processes and improve the way things were done,” explains Alan Martin “ Because of the variable nature of our products, Worldmark relies greatly on its front end processes—estimating new jobs and providing quotations. This requires considerable technical knowledge, covering materials and production processes. So to quote for a label, it is important to ensure that sales advisors are confident in the product information they are supplying, and that their quotes are accurately costed.”
Rules-Based Solution
To meet this requirement IFS worked with Worldmark to create a rules-based application using a modified version of the Advanced Configurator module. Sales advisors are now using this facility to go through a logical sequence of events using a ‘questions and answers’ routine to profile the customer’s requirement intelligently. The process takes into account built-in knowledge of various process options, tooling and appropriate materials specifications. Once a label proposal has been created, all the data used in the configuration are held until the customer accepts the quotation and a customer order is released. At this stage the configured data are used to automatically create ‘sales parts’ with their technical characteristics, populate their product structures and routings, and calculate a standard manufacturing cost. A best-fit-search facility allows the global enterprise to find quotes already prepared for similar parts, which saves time and prevents unnecessary variations. Says Alan Martin, “The big advantage for us is that it covers every process in one standard global model and allows us to fully define and share part-specific information leading to reduced quote turnaround times. It has become a pivotal work-flow module that releases part-related technical data throughout the system to subsequently be used by different functions, particularly our shop-floor operations.”
Implementation
The IFS system has been installed on a central server, based at the company’s headquarters in East Kilbride, Scotland. On completion of the roll-out, all of the Worldmark business operations and sales offices worldwide will be running on the same platform, with the group’s manufacturing sites in the U.K., Mexico, The Netherlands, Hungary and China fully integrated. By maintaining a common platform, and standardizing its global footprint, the company will ensure process consistency worldwide with a positive impact on customer satisfaction.
Supply Chain Integration
The group also includes Precision Identification Products. This division creates the base material used by the manufacturing divisions. Master reels of polyester and other durable materials are purchased in bulk, treated with finished surface coats and then slit down to required widths and delivered against internal purchase orders. IFS Applications software supports these activities through inter-divisional trading, supply chain integration and by providing smart procurement solutions. Internally it’s a real-time process as purchase orders are processed by procuring sites and these automatically feed to and create the sales orders and confirmations within Precision. This eliminates errors and queries, as well as saving time. On receipt by the purchasing plant, the system automatically allocates lot numbers to each reel, based on the width requested, allowing the company to identify and plan reels of the same product with differing widths.
Global Visibility, Greater Efficiency
Shop floor processes are now paperless with barcode scanners replacing manual recording. These data are used for keeping track of work-in-progress and capturing process times, lost time, and waste on a real-time basis. Efficiency and job profitability are available as soon as the shop order is closed. Alan Martin concludes by noting that additional benefits of the IFS implementation are going to come from the global reach of the new system. “We now have a cohesive capability, and with fully integrated software we can achieve global visibility of all our activities, and that is a huge benefit for us. From a performance point of view central management can see across the entire organization. Key indicators can be obtained using simple drill-down routines, or customized reports. Trends and exceptions will be highlighted in future using IFS Performance Management software.” “Worldmark now has a pre-defined cost/benefit target and we know that IFS will contribute to better informed decisions, improved productivity from the workforce and making the best possible use out of our working capital.”
About Worldmark
Worldmark International manufactures identification products, and its business has grown globally with the demand for high quality products, particularly in the electronics and tele-communications sectors where identification, branding and security are important. In some cases, such as the keys for mobile phone handsets, Worldmark products are an integral part of the product design. Labels are also supplied into the automotive and harmaceuticals sectors. Worldmark employs around 600 people worldwide. Turnover was around £36 million in 2004.
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