Wandsworth

U.K.-based Wandsworth replaced an ageing proprietary system which had become increasingly uneconomic to maintain with IFS Applications™. As a result, the company has become more agile because it gets critical business information at an earlier stage and can adapt operations when necessary rather than waiting for reports to be filed. Lower inventory levels and easier access to information are just some of the other benefits.

Need for Greater Flexibility

The Wandsworth Group has maintained its independence by holding its share of the high end of the market. Key to this has been its focus on customer requirements. Customization, however, has led to a high level of product variants. 

“The emphasis is now on our manufacturing procedures and stock turnover to ensure we obtain maximum profitability for the capital employed,” explains administration manager, Gerry Thornton. 

“Flexibility on the shop floor is the new watchword, and attitudes have had to change totally from manufacturing to stock; to a new lean approach—only making what can be sold.” 

The previous system had been in service for over 20 years, and Wandsworth was careful to ensure that its replacement would retain all the specialized functionality it provided, as well as meeting future needs of the group.

Balancing Throughput and Capacity

The big challenge in production planning is in balancing order fulfillment and availability without creating excessive levels of stock. Wandsworth’s portfolio covers around 2,000 generic products plus an infinite number of variations. Specials are made to order. A lot of stock is also part finished and then completed against customer orders. 

Customer ordering is complicated by the fact that components are often installed at different stages as the building work progresses. Products are supplied both direct to installer, or through stockists, and demand can fluctuate from high volume to small quantities for refurbishment projects. To encourage smooth ordering, Wandsworth provides a range of pricing options and discounts.

Change to MRP

Managing shop orders was an area in which the generic IFS software worked in a different way to the legacy. Previously, Wandsworth used Re-order Point Control in conjunction with sales forecasts based on historic demand patterns rather than traditional materials requirement planning (MRP). 

“Our immediate reaction was to start creating interfaces so that IFS would perform in the same way as the legacy,” says John Williams, associate director support services. “Eventually we realized that the IFS MRP function would provide a neater solution and decided to make the change. And this has proved to be very successful.” Gerry Thornton agrees. “Now we have moved across to MRP we can already see some reduction in our inventory.” 

“It has opened our eyes to the next problem with manufacturing and that is capacity. Now that we have got the materials under control, the next thing is to ensure that we have the correct resources available to meet our delivery commitments.” 

Concurrent to the IFS implementation, Wandsworth has undertaken a major project with a view to implementing lean manufacturing techniques. Detailed studies have been carried out into the movement of materials through the manufacturing process, economic batch sizes, bottlenecks and available capacity. The aim is to eliminate waste in various forms, from excessive stocking to idle capacity. 

This work preceded the switch over to an MRP based shop ordering system. The aim ultimately will be to carry this forward with the implementation of constraint-based scheduling functionality from IFS. This will enable the company to balance throughput and therefore achieve more accurate lead-time forecasts and improve its performance for on-time order deliveries.

Easier Access to Information

Benefits are felt throughout the organization as users can now interrogate the system as and whenever necessary, rather than await the publication of reports. 

Wandsworth has worked with IFS to adapt sales order processing and quotation documentation so that individual lines can be discounted. A typical sales order may have up to 30 line orders. This modification accommodates the need to allow different discounts according to different customers and product types. 

“One of our biggest worries was our ability to manage the transfer of data,” says John Williams. “IFS, however, provided some very useful tools to support this activity, and given the tools and an explanation on how they worked we were able to do most of the work ourselves. The project was relatively painless. IFS consultants kept an eye on things and were readily available to provide support on site during the implementation.”

Greater Visibility

Historically, about 20 percent of the company’s business has been from specials or non-standard products, ranging from simple variants to totally bespoke design. The IFS software is helping to improve visibility in costing and helping management to achieve a better understanding of the profitability of individual contracts. 

Another area the company is looking at is in capturing information and criteria used for preparing price quotations to ensure consistency in pricing smaller re-order quantities. 

With IFS Applications, John Williams and the Wandsworth team can see many opportunities open now that could not have been contemplated with the previous system.

About Wandsworth

The Wandsworth Group is the UK’s oldest manufacturer of electrical switches and accessories. Products are specified by architects, consulting engineers and contractors and can be found in Windsor Castle as well as prestigious hotels, airports and terminals and large commercial buildings in the UK and the Middle East. Currently employing 160 personnel, the company has annual sales of around L16 million. Today, healthcare products account for a significant part of the business and they are being marketed successfully into Canada, Australia and New Zealand.