Benefits from Cincom ERP solution continue to echo throughout sonar manufacture
Announcement posted by Cincom 15 Jun 2001
Back in 1999, design and manufacturing company Thomson Marconi Sonar Pty Limited (TMS) presented an unusual challenge to Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) specialist Cincom -- unlike greenfield companies installing an ERP system for the first time, TMS was already used to the benefits of an ERP solution, having previously outsourced the services via an outside provider. They now wanted to take the system in-house.
There were a number of practical and strategic reasons behind the move but primarily TMS wanted to reduce the cost of ownership, improve security and extend the benefits of operating its ERP system.
By the time we talked to Cincom about bringing the ERP in-house, we already had experience with ERP systems, and so we were highly educated, sceptical customers, said Peter Quinlan, Operations Director for TMS. We had outsourced our ERP system to a service provider and had applied it very effectively to our business. So the benefits we were looking for were less tangible than if we were a company setting up ERP for the first time, where the impact would be more immediate and obvious.
Thomson Marconi Sonar was created in 1996 with the merging of Thomson Sintra Pacific and the sonar activities of GEC-Marconi. The company employs around 540 people and has a turnover of more than AUD$110 million. It is primarily concerned with the design and manufacture of underwater sonar equipment for defence and civilian customers.
So if TMS was already utilising the associated benefits of ERP such as inventory reduction and better information for management, why bring the system in-house?
The initial catalyst was Y2K compliance, said Mr Quinlan. The ERP outsourced to the service provider was not compliant and we felt improvements to that system would be excessively costly and not a good investment anyway as the system had other limitations.
Basically, we were operating with a system that was heavily tailored and therefore inflexible and costly to change, he explained.
In addition to getting ready for 2000, TMS identified four main reasons to change the ERP system and bring it in-house. Firstly, TMS wanted a more cost-effective solution that would have the added benefit of removing its dependence on an outside service.
Secondly, working in sensitive areas like defence and oil exploration, we could not afford to risk a breach in security by having our whole business on someone elses system, said Mr Quinlan. Even though we trusted the service provider, an in-house system was another level of ensuring that our security was not compromised.
Thirdly, we wanted to use it to improve the business by reducing the islands of information resulting from disparate business systems, to support a model of continuous business development. This was not possible with the existing, locked-down ERP system.
And fourthly, we needed to provide information for analysis in a more accessible and timely fashion. While the outsourced system provided some information, what we get now is more detailed and more accessible to the staff who need it, he said.
Cincom approached TMS in 1999, just as the sonar manufacturer was in the process of choosing an ERP provider from a shortlist of other major vendors. Giving the Cincom representatives one hour to acquit themselves, Mr Quinlan was impressed by the companys obvious understanding of his business needs and its experience in handling complicated aerospace and defence industry operations.
Ours is not a conventional manufacturing operation, explained Mr Quinlan. We manufacture very complex products and we approach each product as a mini-project in itself.
We might work on up to 100 projects, of varying scale, at any one time and these are spread between five separate business lines. To some extent, these business lines operate as sub-businesses in their own right, with their own personnel, resources and budgets, he said.
I gave Cincom an hour of hell at that meeting, but they demonstrated real knowledge of this type of business, said Mr Quinlan. They made it clear their product would work for us.
A team of Cincom and TMS personnel completed the initial installation of the ERP suite of finance, manufacturing and engineering applications in October 1999. Cincom achieved a big bang style implementation, with the new system coming on-line coinciding with the old system going off-line, allowing TMS to save money by terminating its outsourcing arrangement as soon as possible.
One of the specific concerns to be addressed by the new system was engineering change control. TMS is a company characterised by a culture of change, brought about by servicing demanding clients who expect the best when purchasing expensive, sophisticated equipment. The engineers are constantly looking for ways to improve their products and the ERP system had to be flexible enough to support that modus operandi.
Our customers expect us to improve our products continuously, explained Mr Quinlan. We always need to get the maximum performance out of our very high tech products and that can mean frequent high tech change, often on a large scale."
The ERP also had to be able to cope with unusually deep bills of materials (BOM) and with complex tracking of serial numbers of the numerous components within products -- two capabilities offered by Cincom's Control ERP system. Also included in the original suite was the Control Financials module, which has proved particularly effective for the accounts department.
Accessing information from the old system was cumbersome but Control Financials provides easy access to data to enable us to generate the reports we need, said Troy Vegvari, Management Accountant at TMS.
We have certainly improved our decision making and reporting capabilities, said Mr Quinlan. For instance, we recently had a corporate restructure. Getting the necessary in-depth reports from the service provider would have been very difficult and time consuming; the Control system enabled us to access the required data without needing additional resources.
Co-ordinating the design and technical implementation of the ERP system for TMS was Business Systems Manager, Malcolm Boadle. For Mr Boadle, the key to ensuring that the ERP was functional and used widely by staff, was to have personnel responsible for the key areas of the business take ownership throughout the entire selection and implementation process.
Our team of shirt-sleeves managers knew they had a vested interest in making sure the system met their particular requirements, Mr Boadle said. They were tasked with satisfying themselves that the system would help execute their particular duties and effectively run our business.
Mr Boadle nominates greatly improved interdepartmental relations as a related but significant benefit of implementing Cincom Control, saying the selection process opened up strong lines of communications that still exist between personnel in different departments.
All up it was an exemplary result in terms of achieving our goals and value for money, said Mr Quinlan. Cincom has provided a more cost effective solution that gives us better integration of information, increased flexibility and more streamlined financial processing. The improved access to information enhances our decision-making capabilities.
For TMS, a rapid implementation was imperative to beat its Y2K deadline and to move away from the old system while retaining existing benefits from the old ERP. Strategically, in terms of a return on its investment, the company was looking for increased capability to support new initiatives and continuous improvement of its business processes.
Future capabilities we are considering include a bidding and estimating tool, after-sales repair facilities and some of the new web-based tools being developed by Cincom, said Mr Quinlan. The Cincom system was a good solution in terms of serving our primary engineering and management needs and, because it is an evolving system, we are confident it will develop with us.
About Cincom:
Cincom provides software and service solutions that help our clients create, manage and grow relationships with their customers through adaptive e-business information systems. Our software products include manufacturing control systems, contact centre and customer relationship management systems, databases, document management, sales knowledge systems and e-business solutions.
Cincom provides world-class implementation and customisation services, comprehensive end-user training and worldwide 24x7 support on each and every product we sell. Our experienced professionals work toward one goal: your timely success and satisfaction.
Cincom is privately owned with more than 5000 clients in 93 countries around the world and has a reputation for fostering innovative - yet reliable - technologies, relationships and people.
There were a number of practical and strategic reasons behind the move but primarily TMS wanted to reduce the cost of ownership, improve security and extend the benefits of operating its ERP system.
By the time we talked to Cincom about bringing the ERP in-house, we already had experience with ERP systems, and so we were highly educated, sceptical customers, said Peter Quinlan, Operations Director for TMS. We had outsourced our ERP system to a service provider and had applied it very effectively to our business. So the benefits we were looking for were less tangible than if we were a company setting up ERP for the first time, where the impact would be more immediate and obvious.
Thomson Marconi Sonar was created in 1996 with the merging of Thomson Sintra Pacific and the sonar activities of GEC-Marconi. The company employs around 540 people and has a turnover of more than AUD$110 million. It is primarily concerned with the design and manufacture of underwater sonar equipment for defence and civilian customers.
So if TMS was already utilising the associated benefits of ERP such as inventory reduction and better information for management, why bring the system in-house?
The initial catalyst was Y2K compliance, said Mr Quinlan. The ERP outsourced to the service provider was not compliant and we felt improvements to that system would be excessively costly and not a good investment anyway as the system had other limitations.
Basically, we were operating with a system that was heavily tailored and therefore inflexible and costly to change, he explained.
In addition to getting ready for 2000, TMS identified four main reasons to change the ERP system and bring it in-house. Firstly, TMS wanted a more cost-effective solution that would have the added benefit of removing its dependence on an outside service.
Secondly, working in sensitive areas like defence and oil exploration, we could not afford to risk a breach in security by having our whole business on someone elses system, said Mr Quinlan. Even though we trusted the service provider, an in-house system was another level of ensuring that our security was not compromised.
Thirdly, we wanted to use it to improve the business by reducing the islands of information resulting from disparate business systems, to support a model of continuous business development. This was not possible with the existing, locked-down ERP system.
And fourthly, we needed to provide information for analysis in a more accessible and timely fashion. While the outsourced system provided some information, what we get now is more detailed and more accessible to the staff who need it, he said.
Cincom approached TMS in 1999, just as the sonar manufacturer was in the process of choosing an ERP provider from a shortlist of other major vendors. Giving the Cincom representatives one hour to acquit themselves, Mr Quinlan was impressed by the companys obvious understanding of his business needs and its experience in handling complicated aerospace and defence industry operations.
Ours is not a conventional manufacturing operation, explained Mr Quinlan. We manufacture very complex products and we approach each product as a mini-project in itself.
We might work on up to 100 projects, of varying scale, at any one time and these are spread between five separate business lines. To some extent, these business lines operate as sub-businesses in their own right, with their own personnel, resources and budgets, he said.
I gave Cincom an hour of hell at that meeting, but they demonstrated real knowledge of this type of business, said Mr Quinlan. They made it clear their product would work for us.
A team of Cincom and TMS personnel completed the initial installation of the ERP suite of finance, manufacturing and engineering applications in October 1999. Cincom achieved a big bang style implementation, with the new system coming on-line coinciding with the old system going off-line, allowing TMS to save money by terminating its outsourcing arrangement as soon as possible.
One of the specific concerns to be addressed by the new system was engineering change control. TMS is a company characterised by a culture of change, brought about by servicing demanding clients who expect the best when purchasing expensive, sophisticated equipment. The engineers are constantly looking for ways to improve their products and the ERP system had to be flexible enough to support that modus operandi.
Our customers expect us to improve our products continuously, explained Mr Quinlan. We always need to get the maximum performance out of our very high tech products and that can mean frequent high tech change, often on a large scale."
The ERP also had to be able to cope with unusually deep bills of materials (BOM) and with complex tracking of serial numbers of the numerous components within products -- two capabilities offered by Cincom's Control ERP system. Also included in the original suite was the Control Financials module, which has proved particularly effective for the accounts department.
Accessing information from the old system was cumbersome but Control Financials provides easy access to data to enable us to generate the reports we need, said Troy Vegvari, Management Accountant at TMS.
We have certainly improved our decision making and reporting capabilities, said Mr Quinlan. For instance, we recently had a corporate restructure. Getting the necessary in-depth reports from the service provider would have been very difficult and time consuming; the Control system enabled us to access the required data without needing additional resources.
Co-ordinating the design and technical implementation of the ERP system for TMS was Business Systems Manager, Malcolm Boadle. For Mr Boadle, the key to ensuring that the ERP was functional and used widely by staff, was to have personnel responsible for the key areas of the business take ownership throughout the entire selection and implementation process.
Our team of shirt-sleeves managers knew they had a vested interest in making sure the system met their particular requirements, Mr Boadle said. They were tasked with satisfying themselves that the system would help execute their particular duties and effectively run our business.
Mr Boadle nominates greatly improved interdepartmental relations as a related but significant benefit of implementing Cincom Control, saying the selection process opened up strong lines of communications that still exist between personnel in different departments.
All up it was an exemplary result in terms of achieving our goals and value for money, said Mr Quinlan. Cincom has provided a more cost effective solution that gives us better integration of information, increased flexibility and more streamlined financial processing. The improved access to information enhances our decision-making capabilities.
For TMS, a rapid implementation was imperative to beat its Y2K deadline and to move away from the old system while retaining existing benefits from the old ERP. Strategically, in terms of a return on its investment, the company was looking for increased capability to support new initiatives and continuous improvement of its business processes.
Future capabilities we are considering include a bidding and estimating tool, after-sales repair facilities and some of the new web-based tools being developed by Cincom, said Mr Quinlan. The Cincom system was a good solution in terms of serving our primary engineering and management needs and, because it is an evolving system, we are confident it will develop with us.
About Cincom:
Cincom provides software and service solutions that help our clients create, manage and grow relationships with their customers through adaptive e-business information systems. Our software products include manufacturing control systems, contact centre and customer relationship management systems, databases, document management, sales knowledge systems and e-business solutions.
Cincom provides world-class implementation and customisation services, comprehensive end-user training and worldwide 24x7 support on each and every product we sell. Our experienced professionals work toward one goal: your timely success and satisfaction.
Cincom is privately owned with more than 5000 clients in 93 countries around the world and has a reputation for fostering innovative - yet reliable - technologies, relationships and people.