Company profile
Our client, a manufacturing company in business for over 50 years in Quebec. The company designs and adjusts design plans according to its customer's specifications. It transforms mainly aluminum sheets and steel plates to manufacture its products, which are sold to other companies in Canada, the United States, and Europe.
Almost all production steps are done in-house: cutting, machining, bending, welding, grinding, treatment and assembly.
Context
Our client implemented an ERP system to manage their operations better and continue to grow and compete. However, after implementing the system, our client was not getting the results they had hoped for. Several operational challenges resulted in lost sales and high staff turnover. As a result, the company turned to us to help them manage the change and optimize their ERP system.
Internal challenge
An external audit revealed that the percentage of use of the new ERP system was as low as 40% in some departments.
Bugs and transaction problems forced the company to make service calls, which constantly caused additional costs and delays in its operations.
Improvement project: what we did
When we first started working there, we noticed a peculiar work climate. However, our tactics allowed us to break the ice and integrate into the company.
After a deep analysis of the situation, we realized that despite excellent technical knowledge of their manufacturing process, the practices used internally for the ERP system did not benefit the company.
The mismatch between the system's information and the reality of raw material and hardware availability caused several trips to the purchasing and supply department. The inventory level of some products was very high, while others were often out of stock.
Some transaction errors that could be corrected internally were often transferred externally and caused delays.
We developed an improvement plan based mainly on training to enable the teams to understand how an ERP system works.
Solution
We formed small groups of participants to enhance the experience. The training model was interactive, with quizzes, individual exercises in a room, and hands-on activities at workstations.
The groups most affected by this training need were production, engineering, and sales. Laminated instructions posted at each workstation on the production floor showed users how to enter the MES (Manufacturing Execution System) to perform tasks.
After a week, the shop floor had improved: material preparation was well done with consistent inventory information (system and physical). Work-in-progress tracking was good; production supervisors could track each production batch at each process stage. In addition, problems similar to the bolt case were solved.
Results
The project was completed in 3 months. In addition, our service provided the client benefits as follows:
Savings of over $10,000 on non-complex transactions, which are now handled in-house
A 25% increase in ERP usage in targeted departments allowed the company to go from 40% to 65%.
Reduced the number of days orders were delayed from an average of 50 to 7 days or less for standard orders.
Improved relationships between teams to create harmony and a shared vision.
Improved invoicing and inventory tracking by creating queries (BAQ) and dashboards.
Success
Our support allowed the company to be more autonomous using its digital solution. The company had a sound ERP system, and through an improvement project, the team began to appreciate the company's technology choice.