Page 38 - MetalForming July 2013

ERP to the Cloud
helped optimize the Plex implemen- tation process. Liu, noting that the company chose to roll out its new ERP system in a “big bang” rather than one module at a time, says that “the E&E Plex team had to sell the new system and the required process re-engineer- ing to the employees. Typically, no one embraces this type of change. But with top-down management support and process ownership on the shop floor, we saw people embracing it quickly.”
E&E operators, adds Swanson, have taken ownership of the ERP system, viewing it as theirs and E&E’s and not a system that belongs to the IT or accounting departments. This real sense of ownership not only quick- ened implementation but also “has improved communication through- out the company, reinforced the need for disciplined business processes and helped managers at each level use dRata to make informed decisions,” says Swanson.
Adds Liu: “The result has been
improved throughput and efficiency and reduced costs. That’s made us a more profitable company.”
Work Flow—Process Management on Steroids
Functional integration within Plex of business intelligence, quality manage- ment, supply-chain management (SCM), customer-relationship man- agement (CRM) and other capabilities also has contributed mightily to E&E’s overall satisfaction with its new ERP solution. “Our annual cost to maintain the incumbent system exceeded that for the cloud-based solution by $50,000,” Swanson says, “due largely to ongoing software maintenance and required customization by an outside developer.” Swanson also notes all of the add-on solutions in addition to its legacy ERP system that were previous- ly required to manage functions such as human-relations records, time and attendance, SCM and CRM.
Last but not least, Swanson and Liu
credit the work-flow function within Plex with making E&E a more efficient and productive company. “We use this function to control many of our inter- nal processes,” Swanson says, “such as adding new customers or issuing pur- chase orders. Plex gives structure to these processes, controlling the sequence of requests through our system.”
To initiate a work flow for purchas- ing, for example, an employee enters the requisition into Plex. Then the req- uisition is sent electronically to the next person or group of people respon- sible for the process, such as a pur- chasing agent.
“Using the work flow function, we can determine the number of steps in a process and assign those steps to people along the way,” Liu says. “To continue the purchase-requisition example, after the purchasing agent cleans up and formalizes the initial requisition, the PO moves to account- ing for account coding, to the account owner for budget approval, and so on
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MetalForming/July 2013
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