With Renaissance enterprise-resource-planning system, wire-making shop Fort Wayne Metals trims its custom-order processing from 12 to 14 weeks to less than two weeks and quickly reacts to special customer requirements.
Using a 15-yr-old home-grown legacy system, Fort Wayne Metals, Fort Wayne, Ind., a maker of precision fine wire for medical products, was experiencing issues in its management of complex production cycles. Executing each production step of individual jobs took 12 to 14 weeks from raw material to finished product, thus making it difficult to quickly respond to custom orders. In addition, the legacy systems caused integration problems that hindered Fort Wayne's planned international growth. The solution was an enterprise-resource-planning (ERP) system that provides an easily adaptable foundation for supporting future growth.
Fort Wayne transitioned from most of its legacy systems to the Renaissance system from Ross Systems. In doing so, the company adopted a new method of manufacturing scheduling that reduced time-to-market for custom orders. With Renaissance's enhanced visibility, the wire-making shop produces a stock or subset of material as a base, permitting it to trim custom-order processing to less than two weeks and quickly react to special customer requirements.
"Renaissance lets us rethink our manufacture-to-order philosophy," says Mark Michael, Fort Wayne president and COO. "Now, we pool supplies of common critical
upstream feed stocks to offer just-intime manufacturing and stocking programs that lower cost and minimize risk to our customers."
With improved planning and more efficient cycles, Fort Wayne is experiencing annual growth rates of 15%, and the company's Ireland facility, live since 2002, is doubling its yearly output. "Since initial implementation and with each new
phased rollout, Ross' support has been solid, and we've worked closely with the company to maximize benefits and deliver high-quality metal products," comments Michael.
Ross Systems Inc.
Atlanta
rossinc.com
