ERP CASE STUDY

HANSENS PIPELINE TO THE WORLD

Dr Gunmala Suri University Business School Panjab University, Chandigarh.

COMPANY DETAILS
HANSEN PRODUCTS
Whangarei based Leading manufacturer of polythene pipe fittings, threaded pipe fittings and high flow foot and check valves. More than 500 finished products under the HANSEN brand Strong export focus with established exclusive distribution in eight countries Growing presence in Canadian Market with plans to double its output over the next 2 yrs.

NEED RECOGNITION
Manage its production planning and scheduling, Hansen had been using a 9 yr old financial system in conjunction with multiple disparate spreadsheets.
Company had outgrown this accounting solution

Lack of integration with the manufacturing system caused the duplication of information. Lot of data had to be manually entered into various spread sheets. Previous solution had several constraints in handling export documentation and multi currency requirements.

REQUIREMENT
System that could cope with the production scheduling and be integrated with financials As the expansion of Canadian market is on the way, to have strong business processes in place and be able to plan adequately, particularly with the long distribution time to canada.

EVALUATION OF ALTERNATIVES
After evaluation of 7 potential applications, the company short listed 3 and examined their functionality in more depth. The company ultimately chose Microsoft Business Solutions Axapta.
Based on the products strength within manufacturing. Being an international product and that was still at the beginning of its life cycle. Also, had confidence in Adaptable solutions as their MD had extensive experience in implementing IT systems within manufacturing industry.

IMPLEMENTATION
Dedicated project team comprised of the MD of Hansen, people from Network Management (outsourced IT infrastructure partner) and the MD of Adaptable Solutions FIRST PHASE : rolling out the financial and inventory modules implemented by 1Jan 2003 SECOND PHASE : manufacturing functionality went live 2 months later in March 03 in order to ensure that staff were adequately trained Flexible customisation tools offered within Axapta enable Adaptable Solutions to easily customise parts of the system to ensure that the company maximised the products benefits. Took few minor modifications to fine tune the system to meet the exact needs

BENEFITS
Axapta synchronises the financials, manufacturing, inventory and forecasting, therefore time saving as avoids duplication. Axapta automatically generates an email to the customer to acknowledge their order when it is received, and another when it is dispatched. It tells the customers which carrier will deliver the goods, exactly when it will arrive and what product is back ordered. Axapta also has the ability to forecast the business. Created significant efficiencies with manufacturing processes and operational efficiencies with better information processing. Delivering tighter production planning and improving the entire scheduling Successfully managing continued expansion in Canadian Markets Staff has been freed from keying in data and focus on important issues.

BENEFITS contd..
Far more efficient now with better inventory management. Improved purchasing as the system tells when to purchase, what and how much. Financial management too has improved
Emails of financial statements like invoices are sent to distributors anytime rather than being constrained by dates. Currency conversion happens automatically

THANK
YOU