Electrothermal, manufacturer of laboratory heating and cooling equipment, has invested in a new enterprise resource planning (ERP) system from Open Business Solutions (OBS). A member of the Bibby Scientific group of companies, Electrothermal selected Infor XA because its parent company has a long-standing, successful relationship with OBS and benefits from using the IBM iSeries client-server based system.
Electrothermal's new system went live in July 2012, automating all its business functions, including purchasing, selling, stock management, materials management, costing, engineering, planning and financials. OBS recommends this system for discrete manufacturing applications as it is designed specifically for the sector and customers benefit from continual development of the system by the software authors.
"Our existing systems needed replacing and with the acquisition by Bibby Scientific, Infor XA was the natural choice. This is the standard business software used by all Bibby European sites. As well as the MRP functionality it provides, Infor XA also includes a fully integrated accounting solution that eliminates the need for time-consuming, labour-intensive reconciliation between our old systems," says Ian Waldie, Materials Manager at Electrothermal.
By using the system, Electrothermal will gain tighter control of materials. It will provide visibility of stocks and enable the company to order what it needs and when it is needs it. This will help to manage manufacturing costs better and will improve customer service because Electrothermal will have a clearer view of order lead times. The system will provide a real-time of view of production from initial order to completion.
"By using Infor XA, we also gain the advantage of working with Open Business Solutions (OBS), an arrangement Bibby has benefited from for more than a decade. OBS understands the business and has the expertise and resources that ensure we gain the full benefit of the software.
"We have an excellent working relationship with OBS and are very happy with how they have used their expertise to customise Infor XA to suit our business needs. This, and the project management and training support provided by OBS, has enabled us to get off to a good start.
"By adopting the Bibby group ERP solution, Electrothermal will also be able to benefit from Infor solutions such as EDI trading, Business to Business e-commerce (COM_Net2) and CRMi, which are already in the Bibby application portfolio," adds Ian Waldie.
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