Customer background:
Automotive Technik was originally founded in 1993 as a UK agent for the Austrian company Steyr-Daimler-Puch, selling Pinzgauer all-terrain vehicles to the fire service and the military.  In 2000, Automotive Technik acquired the worldwide exclusive rights to produce the vehicle in the UK. 
The vehicles are used mainly as troop carriers and gun tractors by the military, and as ambulances and fire engines - they can carry a payload of 2,500kg at 50 mph across rough terrain.  The body shells are built in the company's Body in White' factory in Fareham and then shipped to the vehicle assembly plant in Guilford, where they are finished to the customer's specification, using anything up to 7,000 different components.

The requirement:
As the company changed from distributor to manufacturer - supplying to 30 countries across the world - the existing computer system was unable to cater for demands of the new business.  The company, which turned over more than £10 million last year, can currently produce up to four vehicles a week but with two big new contracts coming on stream this year, production is set to escalate. Automotive Technik's Group Chief Executive, Alan Stanley set about finding a more capable system.

The solution:
A 30-user deal with Information Engineering for its SYSPRO ERP system.
Stanley says: "We got in touch with Information Engineering after we had seen reports on their implementations at fire engine manufacturer, Saxon Specialist Vehicles and bus builder, Alexander Dennis.  The initial demonstration was very positive, and we followed it up with one of their two-day workshops, where we could see that the SYSPRO system was able to meet all our requirements, both now and for the foreseeable future."

The benefit:
"The product configurator is particularly useful for us," adds Stanley.  "It will allow us to turn quotes round quickly and more accurately, and give us greater control over our stocks - and as we necessarily increase the volume of outsourced production, the ability of the system to handle sub-contract operations will also be invaluable. 

We are very interested too, in the work Information Engineering has done to link CAD drawings to SYSPRO, particularly the Internet-based spares ordering system that lets customers identify and order a vehicle parts using the vehicle's VIN number and original CAD drawing."