UYT

Automotive components supplier drives business performance management with IFS Applications

UYT Ltd of Coventry has implemented an upgrade of its IFS business management system to improve focus on business integration and automation. Several additional IFS modules have been deployed, enabling the company to take advantage of more advanced functionality.

Established in 1996 as a joint venture to supply Body In White (BIW) components to Honda UK Manufacturing, UYT produces a range of pressed parts, structural under-body fabrications and sunroof assemblies.

Following the initial implementation of IFS in 2002, the business sales turnover increased tenfold, moving up from £6 million to over £66 million by the end of 2004. In order to consolidate this growth, UYT needed to re-align its business process to focus on Business Centres. The board wanted lean structures and the deployment of business systems to automate back-office, shop-floor control and the supply chain management. IFS was a key enabler to this re-structuring.

"An effective ERP is crucial to business today. By making a fresh start we were able to make sure that everybody understood the importance of doing it properly, that means deploying the IFS system as an integral part of the way we do business," explains Finance & IT Director, Maureen Hawkins.

From its experience with the original implementation, it was decided to position the IT department as facilitators rather than the prime movers in the project. John Greaves, Deputy MD said "ERP touches every aspect of the business, so all our senior managers were required to take ownership and have a hands-on role."

UYT also took this opportunity for reviewing the future information management requirements. By starting again, the company could use fresh data, unencumbered by the accumulated legacy of historical records. It was also decided that only active part numbers were selected to be transferred into the new database. The clean out of data was a key element of the success of the programme.

Quick Reference Guides

Preparation also included a major exercise to review and define all of the company’s operating procedures. To do this the company introduced a technique based on quick reference guides (QRG) to ensure that all of the key processes were covered with appropriate system support.

Planning & Control of the Programme

To ensure that the re-implementation stayed on track, an executive steering team was set up representing all of the key functional areas within the company. Working back from the proposed go-live date, a road map was drawn up, setting out the goals for four progressive conference room pilot stages. Key activities covered:

• IFS module deployment identification
• Process mapping & QRG development
• Data cleanse, verification & new data creation
• Data transfers
• Conference room pilots & reviews
• Cut-over
• Post go-live support
• Additional, new IFS module investigation deployment   

Priorities for the target modules were set by a series of joint UYT/IFS workshops. The policy was to deploy modules that cover all basic business functionality and only extend a few new modules at this stage. Having got all the QRGs signed-off, the next step was to look at the data that was being put through and how this related to the respective functions within the IFS system.

Says Maureen Hawkins, "In effect this was following the process through to creating the functional path. This demonstrated that the new system would do everything that was required, removing any doubts about its capabilities and the scope of its functionality."

Conference Room Pilots (CRP)

The conference room pilots were used to test the critical, basic business functionality. The CRP’s were manned by cross-functional teams from the business with support from the IT department. The process raised a considerable number of issues, the most pertinent being:

• Data inaccuracies and missing data
• Report requirements
• System functionality questions
• Holes in UYT processes
• Links to third party systems
• HR record issues   

A detailed log of all these issues was compiled and after each conference this was reviewed systematically with IFS. For John Greaves the ‘issues’ log is critical to highlighting potential "show stoppers" and to provide a means for allowing the business to manage each of these through to resolutions. Maureen Hawkins sees the conference room pilots as instrumental in keeping the implementation on track. As issues cropped up, the team were able to focus the solutions and target the resources required to achieve a solution in good time.

IFS 2004 in operation

Now fully implemented, IFS has become the basic standard, underpinning all of the company’s key business processes. In-depth system training has demystified the system and attitudes have changed to the use and deployment. As a tier 1 supplier to Honda, UYT’s production is geared to its customers’ requirements. Functionality such as the IFS Customer Schedule module enables the company to plan production against the customers’ call off requirements, and deploy a strategy of "push, pull and visual systems" to ensure the shop floor runs properly and efficiently.

Benefits

A main advantage of the new implementation is that UYT managers now have greater visibility than was possible previously over various strategic areas, such as the manufacturing environment, supply chain status and cost control.

"We have dispelled the myth that manufacturing is a black art," says Maureen Hawkins. "We can see that a department has produced this quantity of parts, for this number of standard hours and this amount of elapsed time to make it, therefore efficiency is a mathematical calculation. By integrating time and attendance into the production process, this measurement can be fully automated. These systems will be used to target inefficiencies."

Future Development

As with most IFS customers, implementation projects are now ongoing – taking advantage of the modularity of the applications software. This enables a step-by-step approach to the development of the overall IT infrastructure and capability at a relatively low risk to the business.

"We can focus on specific benefits and realise each of these with much more certainty than with fall out from a 'big bang' approach," says Maureen.

One example will be the implementation of the IFS Maintenance module. Work has also started on the integration between HR, Manufacturing and Financials. Preparations are also underway for interfacing the time and attendance element with Payroll and Financials.

Maureen Hawkins sees the future direction moving towards business centre profitability. "One of the things we want to be able to look at is product profitability and business centre profitability in a degree of detail that you could not do without an effective integrated ERP system."

Maureen Hawkins concludes by saying: "Above all this has been an investment in the way we do business. With IFS we now have a business tool to ensure we can make the right management decisions about profitability, productivity and future development."

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