Samvardhana Motherson Reflectec (SMR)

The Challenge:

CAPITALIZING ON OPPORTUNITY WHILE STANDARDIZING AND UPGRADING ERP SYSTEMS THROUGHOUT A GLOBAL COMPANY

SMR has 22 production and logistics centers located in 15 countries around the globe.

“Our main IT challenge is integrating all of our plants around the world onto the same ERP system,” notes Christophe Sib, Director, Global ERP and Quality Management Systems. “It’s imperative for us to have a consistent ERP system across the entire company with the ability to accommodate multiple countries and a variety of languages. The solution also had to be capable of being customized for regional differences while still allowing us to function effectively as a single integrated company.”

SMR faced a new challenge when a major customer approached the company about a large new contract for the SMR Langfang plant near Beijing. This plant, although part of the SMR organization, had been managed without an ERP system due in part to its small size and limited activity. A stipulation of the contract required that SMR implement an ERP system at the Langfang plant before the customer would commit.  

“It was very important to the company to accommodate our customer at the Langfang plant, plus it would be quite profitable,” added Sib. “Fortunately the stipulation to install the QAD ERP system fitted very well with our long term plan — it just sped up the process to meet their deadline.”

The Solution:

QUICK RESPONSE AND IMPLEMENTATION WINS A MAJOR CONTRACT

Having such extensive experience with QAD ERP, the SMR IT team was able to implement the system very quickly at the Langfang plant.

“We only had three months to get the Langfang ERP system installed, tested and live,” notes Sib. “There were no problems with the software but we did have to work through some local expectations. Having QAD’s superior product and support was very helpful throughout the process.”

“We went live, and within two days the customer’s team came onsite to check if we had met our commitment,” notes Sib. “They were very focused on the logistics and purchasing processes and certified everything was in place — the contract was quickly confirmed and the new project began.”

The Benefits:

NEW CONTRACT IS WON AND SMR IS POISED FOR THE FUTURE

“The new contract at the Langfang plant has been a great addition to SMR’s bottom line and the successful and quick ERP installation has had a positive impact not only on SMR in China but on the entire company,” comments Sib. “All 21 of our plants around the world are now running QAD ERP and we are making plans for our next big upgrade.”

SMR uses a system of KPIs to judge the effectiveness of the ERP system at each location, tracking and measuring multi-basis guidelines, including:

• Material builds
• Purchasing processes
• Delivery processes
• EDI integrations
• Logistics
• Inventory

“We set global guidelines with a base minimum of 85 percent compliance within each process on average,” notes Sib. “Generally we have seen compliance of around 96 percent of those discrete processes using the system.” 

“Having QAD ERP implemented everywhere means we all are talking the same language, using the same tools and modules,” continues Sib. 

“With the new plant in China we only needed to send two people from Logistics and Purchasing for the implementation. It used to take 18 months to implement a new ERP system in a new plant – now it only takes three to four months.” 

Some of the other benefits SMR has realized with the standardization of QAD ERP across the company are:

• Standardization of monthly and weekly reporting and logistics practices
• A 50 percent time savings in customer response times for document management
• Easier and more accurate forecasting resulting in a 20 percent decrease in inventory levels
• Improved cost management with clear and detailed costs highlighted through a corresponding financial transaction generated for every physical transaction

“It’s very important to both SMR and our customers that we are using the same ERP system across the globe and working with QAD has helped us streamline our business,” concludes Sib. “We can do everything everywhere with the same business processes, providing consistency for our customers.”