Manufacturing Executive - September 2008 - (Page 35)

user interface. Dashboard also reaches into sales end of years of frustration in which the company department records, giving executives a purhas attempted to solve its information coordichase-to-sale view of how individual products nation problem several times using more comand suppliers are performing. plicated and expensive solutions. One internal user is Eifion Owen, Bako’s For instance, eight years ago it tried to imDurham-based purchasing manager for the complement a common ERP system across its six repany’s northern and Scottish divisions. He regions, each of which has significant autonomy. calls that information access was previously so Three of the regions cooperated, deploying tedious that he rarely bothered to check records Solarsoft’s Concerto ERP. The others resisted. other than at contract renewal time or when he “They had already spent a large amount on taiwas planning the next year’s purchases. loring their own systems,” Ferguson says. That “I used to have to go to a mainframe, look at a left Bako with a hodgepodge. Three regions particular supplier, and then get the calculator now use the Concerto ERP; one uses an Infor out. I’d use it only if it was urgent,” says Owen, product, and two others use custom-built ERP who now regularly checks either purchasing or sales data every day. Dash- Dashboard has given us the ability to pull data board, he says, “has taken a manual at the flick of a switch. I can find out what’s system and given us the ability to pull data at the flick of a switch. I can been going on in the last few months within find out what’s been going on in the seconds.” — Eifion Owen, Bako UK last few months within seconds.” Not only can Owen arm himself at negotiation systems. All use their own custom databases. time, but also, by tapping into the sales informaThe company subsequently tried other remetion, he can tell whether a supplier’s product is dies. Those included evaluating a Microsoft Acselling and, if not, suggest changes to the supplicess database across the six regions, but Bako er. Dashboard lets him search quickly by supplidetermined about four years ago that Access er name, product type, or other category. wouldn’t have been able to deliver daily updates. “Let’s say we contract for currants. In the “Because of the time it would take to run a past, I’d have to work out how many currants query, it wasn’t an option,” Ferguson recalls. “It we’ve sold. Now I can just put “currants” on it wasn’t very dynamic.” [Dashboard], and it will tell me ever ything,” The company later considered another dashOwen says. He can also weigh one currant supboard product, called Vector, but concluded that it plier’s performance against another’s. was too costly at roughly £100,000. Bako started looking into Solarsoft’s Dashboard in early 2006, RAMPING UP when Solarsoft — then called XKO — suggested Like any new technology, Dashboard didn’t it during a regular sales meeting regarding Bako’s come without teething pains. Bako started trialongoing use of Concerto. ing the product in August 2007, about eight Solarsoft Group Product Director Steven Harmonths before turning it live. Adjustments ingreaves says, “ERP systems do a fantastic job of cluded fine-tuning business practices: The comrunning the business, but the older systems don’t pany had to start treating all items as “stock” do a good job of improving the business. Dashitems. Before, purchasing managers did not enboard is all about giving ter certain items, such as cake mixes or bread executives clarity and transESOURCE CENTER mixes, Owen says. parency to see what’s really Ironically, Bako UK, itself, was set up some 14 going on in the business, to ARTICLES: years ago to establish purchasing power among present information in a way Business Intelligence: Getting in Sync with Real-Time Data various regional, unrelated distributors. But inthat’s flexible and dynamic.” www.managingautomation.com/bi dependence among the regions has undermined With distributors sharpenTechnology Advances Push BI to that. “The setup of the computer systems was ing their tools, manufacturMainstream never a synchronized process,” Ferguson says. ers, themselves, will be www.managingautomation.com/pushbi “We all use different supplier codes, different under pressure to counter supplier descriptions, different product codes, with technology that tracks COMPANIES MENTIONED: and different product descriptions.” Ferguson distributors’ sales and perQlikTech International www.managingautomation.com/qliktech2 runs IT for Bako’s Northern and Scottish diviformance. They, too, could sions as well as for central operations. “So crosstur n to Dashboard — an Solarsoft www.managingautomation.com/solarsoft referencing has been a nightmare.” arms dealer to both sides of Ferguson hopes that Dashboard marks the the value chain battle. ■ R September 2008 35 http://www.managingautomation.com/bi http://www.managingautomation.com/pushbi http://www.managingautomation.com/qliktech2 http://www.managingautomation.com/solarsoft

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Manufacturing Executive - September 2008

Manufacturing Executive - September 2008 Contents Editor's Letter Opinion By David Humphrey Starters Road Trip Part 1: Innovation or Efficiency? Part 2: The Innovation Gap Opinion By Lisa Bodell Special Report: Great Aspirations Supply Chain: The New Money Machine Product Design: Fruehauf Gets into High Gear with 3D CAD Business Intelligence: Food Distributor Turns Up the Heat on Manufacturers Software: Manufacturers Face SaaS Hurdles Dialogue Opinion By Pierfrancesco Manenti

Manufacturing Executive - September 2008

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