Brightwell Dispensers are family owned SME that designs and manufactures dispensing systems. They turned to McGuffie Brunton when implementing their new ERP System.
Making the Right ERP Choice
From enabling far more effective strategic decision making, to helping deliver significant improvements in the control of its increasingly lean manufacturing operation, SYSPRO ERP, from McGuffie Brunton, is already proving that 'second time around' Brightwell Dispensers has found the right business solution for supporting its development and growth.
Brightwell Dispensers are family owned SME that designs and manufactures dispensing systems. Unfortunately the issue of ERP has until recently been an extremely sore point. The key reason for this is that like many other SMEs with limited in-house IT experience, the company's first foray into this type of technology in the late 1990's proved to be a complete failure.
As Stephen Woolmer, Managing Director and Company Secretary, explains. "As an expanding company, we had recognised the need and potential benefits of a more modern business management system, and the decision was made to implement one of the then new breed of Windows based ERP systems. However, a combination of haste and a lack of IT expertise meant that we were bamboozled by the hard sell, and the promised benefits of all the add-on features of the system we selected."
Not only did the extra features not live up to their expectations, but the core system implementation itself was a complete failure. Within months Brightwell were forced to revert back to their old DOS based product. "It was a nightmare. On top of all the normal pain of implementation and change over, to find that key parts of the system just did not work properly was disastrous", adds Woolmer.
Learning from Mistakes
Fortunately the company survived this experience and continued to grow and evolve, both in terms of a broadening product range, and the investment in modern 'hi-tech' factories that now produce over 90% of its key electronic and plastic components. The result is that Brightwell Dispensers has become Europe's leading independent manufacturer of dispensers for soaps, gels, liquid chemicals, rinse aids, and paper products. Over 50% of its products are exported, to some 60 countries worldwide.
However, by late 2003 this continued expansion presented the company with a major dilemma. Brightwell had continued to struggle on with its original system, with the only new support coming from a CRM package. This had been increasingly adapted to take over 'additional' functions, from handling sales orders and managing product information. But it was obvious that the ever-growing demands were stretching both systems well beyond their limits. A lack of easily available information to support decision making was beginning to hamper the company's performance and potentially restrict future growth. With some trepidation, the decision was made to bring its management infrastructure and control mechanisms up to date with the implementation of a new ERP system.
This time around the management team undertook a comprehensive selection process to ensure that they were not 'beguiled' by a sales pitch. The result was the selection of SYSPRO from McGuffie Brunton. "Apart from selecting a well founded system that would clearly meet our needs, a key factor in our decision was McGuffie Brunton itself. They not only had a proven track record of effectively supporting SMEs, but we found the complete lack of hard sell by their team to be a very refreshing approach, and one that was still different to many of the other suppliers we considered," reports Woolmer.
Right from Day One
The first clear indication that the company had made the right choice was the implementation process itself. Unlike previously when the company went for everything in one go, they followed McGuffie Brunton's suggestion and began with the implementation of the core system - financial, sales, purchasing and manufacturing. The intention was to add on the extra features and functionality when the company was ready. They took McGuffie's advice and used a dedicated team and a structured approach to drive the implementation forward. In particular Brightwell took the time to clean up their old database before moving it across to the new system.
"The implementation was hard work, but it would have been far harder and more drawn out if we had set our sights too high to start with, and equally if we had not set aside the time and resources to do this properly the first time. With the dedicated team, working with McGuffie's consultants on site, we were able to get the whole core system fully operational in just 16 weeks. Moreover, a significant portion of this time was devoted to cleaning out the amazing amount of rubbish data that existed within the old data - including almost 1700 inventory part items that were either duplicates or just not used any more," notes Woolmer.
Now fully implemented, the SYSPRO system is already improving the efficiency of many of the processes it now manages. A good example are the ERP system's reporting capabilities which provide far greater, and more immediate access, to both tactical and strategic information than anticipated. The system now sends out, via internal e-mail notifications and reports covering every aspect of the business from sales to stocks. Some of these are based on "triggers" in SYSPRO which only come into action when a designated set of circumstances occur. As Woolmer confirms, "This is a massive leap forward for us in terms of understanding what is happening in detail, and is already resulting in better decision making in many areas of the business."
A Leaner Operation
One of the most important aspects of the new system, especially in terms of improving bottom line performance, is that the system is already starting to prove to be a major asset in the company's move towards a more lean manufacturing environment.
For example, to minimise lead times and finished product inventory levels, the company operates a build / customise to order assembly process. This involves producing common sub assemblies, which are 'pushed' through the operation on the basis of a forecast and then held in stock. Then, when an order is received, the necessary assemblies are 'pulled' from the store, via a KanBan system, and the final product assembly and customisation (such as attaching the customers logo) is undertaken.
While the final stage of this approach has always proven relatively easy to control through the visual KanBans, ensuring that the right quantities, of the right components and sub-assemblies, are held in stock, ready for final assembly, has in the past been severely hampered by poor forecasting, information 'blind spots' and the vagaries of the old stock control system. The result being that the system would regularly suffer from carrying too much stock of certain assemblies, when production's "guestimates" of what stock levels were needed proved wrong. At the same time, poor sub-assembly stock visibility and control also meant that the overproduction of some items played havoc with lower level component stocks, and this could quickly end up in shortages of common components, and so stock-outs of other assemblies.
The SYSPRO system has proved to be more than flexible in managing this Kan Ban based production system. Better forecasting capabilities, immediate visibility of order data for anyone, effective and visible stock control have all helped deliver process improvements. But the biggest change has been the development of a new approach to controlling the production of the sub-assemblies.
Using the information now available and specialised reports, min/max stock parameters are used to automatically trigger requests for replacements. Daily reports also check stock levels against orders, and these are used to monitor the trigger parameters, which can easily be changed if necessary. More importantly, production now sticks to these requests. In the past, if a particular sub-assembly stock looked low, then they would simply build some more. Now, if the system says no more are needed, then none are produced.
"We see this new practice as a far more intelligent use of the data that we now have to hand, as compared to simply using traditional MRP. More to the point it is proving very effective," states Woolmer. He adds, "By replacing what was at times an uncontrolled push system, with a more controlled pull of sub-assemblies through into stock, we are seeing major improvements in terms of removing waste; less overproduction, less WIP, more efficient processes, better cycle times, and so on."
In other areas of production, Brightwell Dispensers is also benefiting from the SYSPRO system. It now has a much clearer idea of both immediate future needs, and is using this information to work with suppliers to improve component deliveries. The company has also started to introduce an EDI system, with the first link being with its sister company, Ferrybridge Mouldings. As well as speeding up the supply process, the electronic ordering has already resulted in a reduction of errors.
As Woolmer concludes, "This time around the SYSPRO system is clearly proving what an asset ERP can be to an SME. In all aspects of the business, but especially in production, we now have the information to hand, and systems, to improve efficiency, remove waste, and build a lean operation. This is vital if we are continue to successfully compete and grow in a global market."
