Race car builder applies integrated ERP

A leading racing car manufacturer is implementing ERP system to integrate bespoke car manufacturing with its sales order processing system and there are few packages that can do that.

A leading racing car manufacturer is implementing ERP system to integrate bespoke car manufacturing with its sales order processing system and there are few packages that can do that.

Leading racing car manufacturer, Radical Motorsport, is implementing the SYSPRO enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution to support the demands of a fast-paced business.

Radical Motorsport employs 70 people at its factory in Peterborough where it manufactures over 100 racing cars a year for the club sports market, supplying customers in mainland Europe and the US as well as the UK.

It is the world's largest sports car manufacturer and it also produces a high-performance racing car for the Le Mans 24 hour race.

With increasing demands on stock control, the company needed to replace its ageing IT system and it is implementing SYSPRO ERP from K3 business technology group.

Chairman, Tim Greaves said, "We needed a flexible system to integrate bespoke car manufacturing with our sales order processing system and there are very few packages that can do that; our existing system was a distribution system and couldn't be upgraded to include manufacturing." Originally based on a modified high-performance motorcycle engine, Radical has its own in-house engine production facility and the cars have up to 2,000 components, some with sub-assemblies.

By introducing real-time visibility and control of inventory, the new system will streamline the construction of bills of materials, eliminating the re-keying of data and resultant errors.

It will also improve traceability - critical for race car production - with copies of original engineering drawings attached electronically to purchase orders and linked to the goods inwards inspection.

On race days, the availability of spare parts is vital and Radical sends a truck to every race meeting, so teams can buy parts at the track - a typical race weekend will see 50 or more Radical cars racing.

The SYSPRO system provides a live link from the truck to the main stores via a GPRS link, so if the part is not available from the truck, it can be shipped over immediately - the system capturing the order at the track, invoicing the customer automatically and updating inventory in real-time.

Greaves said: "We looked at a number of systems and suppliers and one of the things that struck us about the K3 people was their openness; that plus the software platform (SYSPRO is based on core Microsoft technologies) and the security of supply that comes with a company of its size, gave us real confidence to go with K3." The system, which will include an internet front-end for online sales of spare parts and supporters' merchandise, is expected to go live in September 2006.

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