Subcontract press shop selects best ERP

Edited by the Manufacturingtalk editorial team Jul 25, 2006

When a subcontract press shop became independent it sought an ERP system based on an Oracle database for a large volume of engineering data and CAD information - over 300 million files.

In the heady world of international mergers and acquisitions, companies change hands hourly, huge funds are raised and lofty ambitions realised.

Having signed contracts the wielders of power move on while others are left to see the plan through.

This article looks at one of the most high profile company take-overs that the UK has witnessed and the implications of ownership changes to an IT infrastructure.

When BMW bought MG Rover and then sold it again we saw another chapter in the history of the UK motor industry come to its conclusion.

Both companies have moved on, with remarkable success in the case of MG Rover and continued industrial excellence for BMW.

There is a sub plot to this tale of car making giants which has not been told.

It involves Swindon Pressings, currently under the ownership of BMW.

Swindon Pressings has been in business for more than six decades and was owned by Rover since the 1960s.

When BMW sold MG Rover it retained ownership of Swindon Pressings and an IT Landscape and modernisation strategy commenced.

Swindon Pressings, within its 425,000m2 site, is a purpose built tooling and assembly facility that provides a complete body systems service from part feasibility and prototyping through design for assembly, tooling, project management and assembly layouts to component manufacture and logistics system support.

Today the company provides a major share of pressings and sub-assemblies for MG Rover, Land Rover and BMW's new Mini as well as work for other car manufacturers including Nissan.

* 'U' turn ahead - BMW's IT structure is tight, integrated and big.

It serves to include all aspects of the business allowing command and control throughout.

After MG Rover had been acquired and the process of bringing it into the IT structure had started, Swindon Pressings was subjected to the same regime.

While that process was underway MG Rover was sold, Swindon Pressings retained, and the process of disaggregation started.

This process would enable Swindon Pressings to become a stand-alone business unit with its own independent IT systems.

For the people who were charged with sorting out the systems it was the chance of a lifetime to introduce the ultimate in elegant, well planned and workable IT solutions.

Calling the existing inherited IT landscape complex would be kind - others have been more harsh.

Mike Godwin Swindon Pressings CAX Systems manager, set the scene.

"When we were in the Rover Group we used around 160 computer systems which were operated on a distributed network.

The servers were located in Swindon, Solihull, Longbridge and Gaydon.

When the BMW systems were introduced things became even more labyrinthine with extra servers, located in Germany running various systems including our intranet and e-mail.

Godwin continued, "We had a series of meetings to decide where we wanted to be and how we were going to get there.

We decided that some of the systems were fine as they stood and just needed to be replicated in-house.

That was quite straightforward but when we looked at the manufacturing and finance IT structure that was a totally different scene.

There was a large number of legacy systems, many of which were custom built by people who had not supplied sufficient documentation and were costing a fortune to support, not exactly best in class, to say the least.

The answer was to look for an ERP system.

The usual suspects were investigated interrogated and judged for suitability.

The system that was chosen is based on an Oracle database and as such able to act as a data vault for the understandably large volume of engineering data and CAD information that the company is required to maintain.

More than 300 million files were held at Gaydon alone.

* Partner required for IT projects - Swindon Pressings' IT decisions had followed the MG Rover and then the BMW corporate strategy for some time.

The company knew that it had a big job ahead and that during the transition it would also need IT support on its CATIA CAD system.

Godwin continued: "We wanted to develop a partner relationship with a company that could help us on current operational activities and also provide some direction as to best practices for our future".

"We looked at several organisations and finally selected Cenit Desktop as our chosen partner because of its general experience in this sort of work and its specific and in-depth knowledge of CADDS 5 and CATIA for both MG Rover and BMW.

The projects at Swindon Pressings on which Cenit Desktop has been working are as follows.

* The disaggregration project itself.

* At elbow support for CATIA and the infrastructure that runs it.

* Installing a Windows 2000 PC system across the company.

* Implementing IBM's Tivoli network management software.

Godwin commented, "Since we did not know in advance what our workload would be, using Cenit Desktop makes great sense because we are able to turn the resource up or down as needs change.

They are a commercial organisation they are aware of current trends and the latest products and techniques available".

"Basically they filled a gap of resources and knowledge.

He said: "Another advantage of working this way was that Cenit Desktop was able to offer not just alternative strategies and best practice options, but also is able to sit down and implement the chosen systems while giving us valuable insight and support with CATIA.

It was Cenit Desktop that suggested the introduction of Tivoli for network management and introduced Swindon Pressings to the best techniques on proceeding with the implementation.

* The 'good, the bad and the ugly' - Dave Watson, who heads the team of Cenit Desktop staff working at Swindon Pressings said, "The projects at Swindon Pressings were a text book example of the type of company that we like to deal with and to whom we can offer the most help.

The IT landscape at Swindon Pressings combined a range of good, bad and ugly solutions that offered massive scope for improvement.

The company was obliged to disaggregate from BMW, but at the same time saw the opportunity to provide itself with the best in each class of IT solutions that when combined would produce a truly elegant system.

He continued, " The complete scope of the job could not be pre-defined since at the start no-one knew what would be uncovered, nor how these discoveries would have to be dealt with".

"And all the time there was a need to keep current work underway.

* Execution - the combined resources of Cenit Desktop and Swindon Pressings fulfilled Godwin's initial requirement, which was to establish a partnership that would develop solutions together.

Once mutual confidence had been established and the first elements of the work complete, the road ahead looked clearer.

A series of meetings allowed the combined team to plan a way forward and set targets and deadlines to execute its decisions.

Swindon Pressings is in the full swing of the disaggregation process and set to become a stand-alone business.

The policy has paid off and the partnership moves on.

Godwin sums up the exercise thus: "By using this system of organisational partnership we have derived several business benefits not least that there is one version of the truth which has been agreed by everybody.

Decisions have been taken collectively so that everything is understood by all concerned and we therefore need less IT support.

The implementation of each element of the system has been speedy and any problems have been dealt with quickly by the Cenit Desktop/Swindon Pressings team.

And, finally, we will soon have achieved a fully integrated IT set up that is best in class, future proof and most satisfyingly of all, ours.