Aeromatic-Fielder

Pharmaceuticals plant equipment manufacturer develops IFS Project for production control, inventory, status and cost reports.

Aeromatic Fielder's implementation pushes the boundary of software application.

There are fundamental differences between the processes needed to support the production of capital equipment - make-to-order; and those suited to high volume consumer products, which are geared to the turnover of stock inventory. Most manufacturers are somewhere between the two, some even operating a mix of modes. For Aeromatic Fielder the emphasis is on bespoke production, rationalised where possible through the use of common assembly modules.

Part of the Niro Pharma Group, Aeromatic Fielder supplies machines used for the production of solid dosage medicines. Products include high capacity mixing machines and ancillary plant, used to combine, dry and formulate tablets.These machines are designed against very specific requirements in terms of capacity and installation.

Implementation

During the course of its implementation, Aeromatic Fielder has undergone a series of business re-structuring stages. Following the installation of the IFS Financials suite in 1998, the Technical Division has taken the lead.The programme is being managed by Bryan Nelthorpe, who is responsible for equipment standards.

The first step was the creation of a product data management (PDM) database within IFS. Essentially this was a standardisation exercise, breaking down the product range into common modules, which could be configured to meet different customer specifications, each with some degree of uniqueness requiring design.

At that time Aeromatic Fielder was also consolidating two complementary businesses, operating from bases in Switzerland and Eastleigh, Hampshire. By taking advantage of the infrastructure provided by IFS, the company installed a uniform enterprise resource planning (ERP) system.

The focus at this stage was on the production engineering, effectively using IFS as a vehicle for introducing common operational procedures and workflows. An early benefit was the introduction of intelligent tags to associate groups of components. These can be sorted to create assembly structures, thereby speeding up the process of preparing orders for release to production, as each machine design evolves over time.

During 2003 the company restructured its organisation; bringing the Technical Division and Manufacturing together under a single management unit, known as the Products Group. Both of the company's overseas business operations, covering the USA and Europe became Contracting Divisions, responsible solely for sales and customer liaison. The British site now has responsibility for all manufacturing operations, supplying equipment to the contracting divisions for delivery and site installation work.

The new challenge

As the implementation progressed, Bryan Nelthorpe's team turned its attention to a number of operational issues facing the Products Group. Information tended to be ambiguous and an excessive amount of cost was being allocated to variance accounts. A study found that more specific procedures were required

This was resolved by switching more and more parts in the system from "making- for-inventory" to "making-for project" - which was a big difference in the way IFS had been set-up by Aeromatic originally.

"This was easy to achieve once we decided we needed greater clarity in project costs," says Bryan Nelthorpe. "Basically we are a project based company. Every time we raise a works order number or every time we buy something, it is now for a project."

The solution

This revision allowed IFS to be used to generate timely shop orders and purchase orders automatically, an operation which previously was being performed manually. As well as saving time, this also improved the accuracy of reporting costs going into the project.

Now that it was using IFS Project as the primary production planning tool, Aeromatic Fielder began to discover areas of functionality which worked differently, for instance shop orders made for project and the shop orders made for inventory. A lot of effort was put into understanding the criteria for deciding whether to make parts for project or inventory.As a rule parts procured for inventory are low value and low risk and they should be covered by set buying rules and standard prices.

Another area needing special attention was in the dates scheduled for the release of internal works and purchase orders. Lead times are used for back scheduling finish dates to ensure availability of components for the release of the next level shop orders. Within the Project environment it is necessary to synchronise the timing of a specific activity to all the relevant shop orders.

A benefit of this is that the system highlights any areas where additional resources are going to be required to meet the commitment. If this is not feasible, it will provide early warning so that a more realistic delivery date can be agreed.

"Looking back, this seems to be a minor detail but once we fully understood its significance it represented a huge step forward for us!" says Bryan Nelthorpe.

"Now it has become routine. We list all the project activities and write all the routings for all the manufacturing cycles. We can check that the duration of the activity matches the duration of the shop orders. Then at the press of a button IFS will raise all the documentation, some 100 or 150 shop orders and purchase orders - automatically, all with the correct start and finish dates."

Clearly the accuracy of the lead time data entries is important and that comes from the base information provided for that component. The system needs to know who is going to supply the component, how much is it going to cost and how long it will take to procure. To ensure it remains current, Aeromatic Fielder re-costs its purchasing database four times a year.

Benefits

In summarising the overall benefits that the implementation has delivered, Bryan Nelthorpe sees it as a process of progressive improvement. "Looking at it from the Project, the main benefit is the availability of accurate and current cost reporting. We can see the planned, the actuals and the committed costs are accurate, and we are confident about the underlying data."

"Visibility is much better because when you raise all your shop orders and the purchase orders from within the Project you can see them all. There is only one place to look for the information. I can jump to it and drill down, find the cost, find the supplier, find when they are due and when they were delivered. All that sort of information is now readily available from one place, which is a great advantage."

For additional information, contact:

Christine Murphy, Marketing Manager
Telephone: +44 (0)1494 428900
Fax: +44 (0)1494 428907
E-mail: christine.murphy@ifs.co.uk