Product category:
Enterprise Resource Planning software (ERP)
News Release from: Microsoft Dynamics | Subject: Navision
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 19 March 2004
Steel and Alloy uses Microsoft Navision
Alpha Landsteinar supplies leading automotive steel processor with flexible Microsoft Business Solutions product suite Steel and Alloy Processing is the UK's leading automotive steel processor.
Alpha Landsteinar supplies leading automotive steel processor with flexible Microsoft Business Solutions product suite Steel and Alloy Processing is the UK's leading automotive steel processor In business since 1969, the company's current annual revenue is 85 million pounds
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 18 Feb 2004 at 8.00am (UK)
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It remains privately held.
Steel and Alloy is a tertiary supplier in the highly competitive automotive manufacture industry.
As a company, Steel and Alloy is a fundamental part of the supply solution between raw steel producers and the parts manufacturers, and its major differentiator is the effectiveness of its management of steel stock from customer planning through to delivery.
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Additionally, Steel and Alloy manages third-party stock on behalf of certain customers and suppliers.
Steel and Alloy is a specialist in providing automotive parts makers with raw steel 'blanks' that have been slit or cut from coils.
Annual supply contracts are based on the schedules it receives from its customers.
This provides the company with a top-line estimate of demand from which it in turn can negotiate its supply requirements from steel suppliers.
These estimates are then split into estimated quarterly requirements and finally fixed weekly delivery schedules.
At each stage, the estimates and call-offs become increasingly more detailed including delivery times and locations.
The definitive reason for Steel and Alloy to change its enterprise management systems is to maintain readily accessible data capable of being traced from planning through to the parts supplier.
The company was using an ageing character based steel stockholder package, which interfaced to Tetra C2000.
However, these systems were not meeting Steel and Alloy's needs.
"We faced the classic problem of being data rich but information poor," explains Crawford Fisher, the company's financial controller.
The main concern for Steel and Alloy was that the software it chose would lead to a significant amount of business re-engineering that would compromise the specialist nature of its business processes.
"There was a real risk that our business would be torn apart if we acquired the wrong products," says Fisher.
However, he recognised that acquiring the right software provided the company with an opportunity to start optimising those processes.
"We were willing to make change where it was appropriate and could be undertaken with the minimum of disruption," he says.
Steel and Alloy was unable to find a solution in the market that met its needs, "We looked at large ERP suppliers who had a presence in the automotive sector but couldn't find the perfect fit.
- we were not confident of finding a suitable partner," says Fisher.
Steel and Alloy chose a flexible combination of Microsoft Business Solutions Navision product suite from Alpha Landsteinar.
"It was apparent from the early stages that Alpha Landsteinar was prepared to listen and understand our needs," says Fisher.
Rather than prepare a detailed list of requirements, both companies agreed to a simple, three page terms of reference.
"We didn't want to create a Bible that sets things in stone," says Fisher.
This was important because both sides recognised a need to be flexible as the project proceeded.
The scheduling and development of the project began in October 2000, with the introduction of Financial ledgers from December 2000.
Steel and Alloy and Alpha Landsteinar quickly established a working partnership that enabled recommendations to be discussed, modified and then included within the implementation plan but without the rigidity that comes from pre-designing everything from scratch.
"We realised that trying to lay everything out from day one would not work and that it would be important to take an incremental approach," says Iain Embrey, senior consultant at Alpha Landsteinar.
"Taking this approach allows us to get buy-in to processes as they are developed and in the context of what each department requires," he adds.
The design and implementation took seven months but that included the creation of new, core business processes.
Once completed, the company rolled out the initial phases of the system to its 80-users in June 2001.
Steel and Alloy was able to automate much of the raw material throughput beginning with the pre-allocation of steel at the point of entry into the supply chain through to sales and work orders, including location tracking.
Control over what was actually happening to the products is maintained by references allocated and entered into the Microsoft Business Solutions system at the railhead or other point of entry into the supply chain.
The company receives emailed spreadsheets from customers, which are taken straight into the MBS system for scheduling updates.
References are created according to customer schedule and pre-allocated.
When steel arrives, it can be booked in rapidly by using the purchase order number, mill coil number or batch reference.
These receipt details are compared with the information already input and links the product to customer part references.
Barcode scanning technology utilising low radio frequency is used to facilitate accurate recording of stock movements within the various plants.
"This gives our customers a better service because we can assure them we have full traceability from both their numbering references and ours," says Fisher.
"Administrative processing time has also been minimised with MBS - for instance we don't need sales orders but can skip straight to works order," he continued.
The data garnered from this overall management system may be used in various ways, such as presenting company usage histories online and ensuring current requirements are validated.
Steel and Alloy also operates a full warehouse management system for some of its customers.
Within this system, business alert emails are utilised to advise other vendors of current stock holdings and customer usage for invoicing purposes.
"When you're managing other people's stock, keeping tabs in real-time is critical.
The Microsoft Business Solutions system has been successfully developed to allow this.
Our customers certainly appreciate it," says Fisher.
In addition, Steel and Alloy has developed a self-billing transportation system, which helps the company plan transport cost cash flow from a position of certainty and allows it to retain a higher level of cost control on a critical cost component.
"We are attempting to consolidate all company processes within the Microsoft Business Solutions environment be it a forecast, a planned maintenance system or a proof of delivery control.
Gone are the days when individually owned databases, created by users, were the norm," says Fisher.
Steel and Alloy is also in the process of developing a range of new financial indicator reports that provide business managers with a greater level of understanding about what is happening inside operations.
For the future, Fisher is clear: "Alpha Landsteinar has provided us with a platform on which we can continue to drive business efficiency, effectiveness and competitive advantage.
All future systems will be built with that in mind." Embrey concludes: "This project demonstrates just how much can be achieved when there is a real partnership in place.
We are confident that this robust system will continue to serve Steel and Alloy well into the future.".
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