The world famous Royal Crown Derby has been manufacturing fine porcelain in Derby since the 1750's, receiving its first royal warrant from George III, and listing Queen Victoria as well as the late Queen Mother amongst its prestigious customers.
Hugh Gibson speaks as one who, having led a buy out of Royal Crown Derby from Royal Doulton Group in June 2000, faced the seemingly impossible challenge of transforming the company from a factory to a fully functional business within three short months!
An old established name, Royal Crown Derby has been manufacturing fine porcelain in Derby since the 1750's, receiving its first royal warrant from George III, and listing Queen Victoria as well as the late Queen Mother amongst its prestigious customers.
However, up until June 2000 Royal Crown Derby was part of the Royal Doulton group, largely viewed as a brand name only, and as such operating with limited autonomy and relying heavily upon Royal Doulton's Stoke site for support.
Finance Director Stuart Hughes explains, "The Royal Doulton operation was highly centralised. All we had in Derby was a factory, limited warehousing and a design function. All sales activity, forecasting, production and planning, as well as the majority of the finance function was undertaken by Doulton at Stoke. This meant that we needed to extend our capabilities into all these areas - and quickly."
Part of the deal was agreement by Royal Doulton for Royal Crown Derby to continue using its computer systems for three months without charge. Thereafter, heavy cost penalties came into play, providing a keen incentive for the new Royal Crown Derby team to source and implement new systems within that time scale.
They turned to KPMG, already on board as advisors to the team, for advice and support. Clearly the time scale precluded Royal Crown Derby from following the accepted process for system specification and selection, so instead the KPMG Business Advisory Service, led by consultant Roger Cowling, agreed to spend time understanding Royal Crown Derby's business and help identify the company's key requirements for a new system.
Of the two potential suppliers on the final short list, Nottingham-based Exel Computer Systems were selected, the overriding consideration being not only systems functionality, but also the necessary service and support that would undoubtedly be required to implement and have it operational within that crucial three month window.
Stuart Hughes takes up the story, "We felt very comfortable with the team from Exel," he says. "Their EFACS software was user friendly - with a Windows based front end - and vitally, we were reassured by the fact that with Exel we would have the authors of the software not just the distributor, so important for fast resolution of problems."
A complete integrated business solution underpinning the whole operation was ideal. We had identified a running order for implementation with commercial areas of order input, dispatch and invoicing being top followed by production planning and recording systems. This route was intended to show our customers our seriousness about customer service. All this went to plan in the first week quickly followed by the financials. We left the system implementation of our own retail shop for a little later, after the dust had settled.
Immediate implementation started from day one. An order was provided for hardware and software, Exel identified its EFACS project team, and made an initial assessment of the Royal Crown Derby operation and its key requirements. From Royal Crown Derby's point of view, the project was given top priority and was properly resourced. Six computers were installed and networked in a designated training room, and a dedicated project team formed on the Royal Crown Derby side. Although the Exel EFACS team were to drive the project, they were to be supported during a handover period by KPMG, later working with a specially recruited IT Manager as well as a retained EFACS consultant.
"In a way, we were in a privileged position," recalls Stuart Hughes. "We didn't have to fit the implementation into an ongoing operation. Because Royal Doulton's systems were still handling our day to day transactions, we were able to dedicate time to the project. Most companies wouldn't have that luxury."
"Royal Crown Derby's newly recruited IT Manager working with an IT Consultant (both with EFACS experience) had extremely critical roles which included both hardware and software installations, training of staff, data transfer from Royal Doulton, implementation then formatting report requirements" Stuart Hughes explains.
Although in the early days the Exel EFACS team had their reservations about meeting the tight deadline - primarily because they doubted that Royal Crown Derby could live with the necessary demands on the company to achieve such rapid implementation - they were soon convinced, and according to Stuart Hughes, gave Royal Crown Derby exceptional support in meeting their deadline.
It was vital, says Hugh Gibson, that the production team 'bought in' to the system, effectively taking ownership of it. "We needed to get the system to work for production, so it was necessary to ensure that we carried the production people along with the project. In the event, this was easy to achieve. The EFACS system is very user friendly, and changes can be quickly made to accommodate specific requirements, particularly with the authors of the software directly involved in its implementation.
He recalls the widespread surprise as real time reporting came online. "With the previous systems, everyone had been used to batch processing, therefore everything was at least 24 hours out of date. It's a long production line with raw clay at one end, and finished bone china at the other. There are various booking points along the process and formerly we depended on pieces of paper being collected and collated, then the system was updated overnight.
We went live with shop floor data capture in the first week and with EFACS real time reporting, suddenly we could be booking one minute and dispatching the next - this was completely unheard of before!"
As the allotted three month period drew to a frantic close, the sales order book was cut over on 30th September, first customer orders were processed directly on 1st October and the first MRP report was run during the first week of October. The impossible had been achieved.
Considering the advantages of the system fifteen months in, Managing Director Hugh Gibson observes that the visibility EFACS gives everyone in the operation - from shop floor to boardroom - is a tremendous boon. "As MD, I can interrogate the system from my desk and find out from stock recording how many items are going through the process, and where in the process they are. I can find out how many orders we have and the value of our dispatches for the day," he comments. "IT information is vital to our customer services, and of course our sales team can enter orders from lap tops and access stock reports there and then. It's very impressive to our customers."
Royal Crown Derby delivers straight to retailers, with all logistics handled through EFACS. Orders are scheduled on basis of dates required, and although lead times are long (some of the more intricate and expensive items take 18 weeks), retailers are now prepared to wait - simply because they have the confidence that Royal Crown Derby will deliver product where and when they say they will.
"We now have excellent controls in place, and consequently our standing has improved immeasurably in the marketplace," Hugh Gibson concludes.
"EFACS has helped put Royal Crown Derby to the very forefront of our industry."
