ANCA

The Challenge:

COMPLEX SUPPLY CHAIN REQUIRES OPEN COMMUNICATION WITH SUPPLIERS

ANCA’s product line is unique, including many proprietary items obtained from suppliers around the globe. Often, these items are sole-sourced and have long lead times — some extending 12 months or more. As a result, ANCA was looking for a way to streamline their purchasing process, improve communications with suppliers and increase the visibility of in-transit goods. They also keep consigned materials in stock as accurately managing the inventory became a major issue. ANCA needed a process for a single source of information that the company and their suppliers could rely on.

ANCA wanted a solution to facilitate and streamline their purchasing process, and to support the switch from traditional purchase orders to supplier schedules, to provide better visibility into future demand.

The Solution:

QAD DEMAND AND DELIVERY STREAMLINES COMMUNICATION BETWEEN ANCA AND ITS SUPPLIERS

ANCA researched various approaches available in the market, including the solutions used by the leading manufacturing companies. Their research showed that most leaders in the industry were using a portal to facilitate communication and collaborate with suppliers.

ANCA considered solutions such as Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), but they were concerned about the difficulty of conforming to multiple EDI standards and the adoption of a complex technology by some of their smaller suppliers.

“Although we considered EDI, our suppliers’ disparate systems and the multiple integrations necessary made that a difficult solution. It was especially problematic for our smaller suppliers that don’t have the technical infrastructure to handle it,” commented Vasu Srinivasan, Global Planning Manager.

ANCA also needed a cloud-based solution to ensure global availability but they had some concerns about system uptime. QAD’s stellar cloud reputation and industry-leading up-time performance set their minds at ease. They decided to move forward with QAD Demand and Delivery. Recognizing the cost savings and process efficiencies of the QAD Demand and Delivery, senior management was behind the project from day one.

QAD Demand and Delivery is a supplier collaboration, management and inventory visibility solution, running on the QAD cloud. QAD Demand and Delivery allows manufacturers and their authorized suppliers to share information about inventory, scheduling, purchase orders, shipments, Kanban, invoices, bills of material and more. 

“We looked at other alternatives, but the ease of implementation made QAD Demand and Delivery the natural choice. With an intuitive user experience,it was quick to train users and it easily integrates with our existing system,” said Vignesh Kodaganallur, Team Leader, Supply Chain Planning, ANCA.

The Benefits:

FAST AND EASY IMPLEMENTATION LEADS TO IMMEDIATE BENEFITS INCLUDING COST SAVINGS AND ERROR REDUCTION

Using QAD Demand and Delivery, ANCA saw improved communication with suppliers within the first few days after implementation. The team agrees that QAD Demand and Delivery was one of the smoothest implementations they ever experienced. 

“QAD was very supportive and worked closely with us to resolve questions or concerns quickly,” said Robert Foregard, ANCA’s Supply Chain Analyst.

Because QAD Demand and Delivery integrates with QAD’s ERP, the implementation was fast and easy. The solution was essentially ready to use right out of the box, even though not all suppliers use QAD as their ERP solutions. QAD Demand and Delivery integrates and communicates easily with other ERP solutions. This was especially helpful for smaller suppliers who sometimes lacked the resources necessary for more complex solutions such as EDI.

QAD Demand and Delivery helped reduce order and expediting costs through real-time sharing of demand information, and reduced errors by replacing manual communications with automated electronic methods. In addition, it provides proactive alerts that notify users when they have new information to act on, creates advanced shipping notices (ASNs) without the need for EDI and prints serialized bar-coded labels to simplify receipt validation. QAD Demand and Delivery supports any procurement model, including discrete purchase orders, supplier schedules, Kanban, VMI, consignment and subcontract purchases. This flexibility made it ideal for ANCA’s complex global supply chain.

ANCA created a system of supplier classifications to determine how they would work with each supplier. Class One suppliers provide key strategic items, and they must be on QAD Demand and Delivery and schedules. Class Two suppliers will also use QAD Demand and Delivery but receive requirements electronically through traditional POs. Class Three suppliers receive POs electronically but do not use QAD Demand and Delivery.

To date, ANCA has introduced their top 70 suppliers to QAD Demand and Delivery, and the change has been extremely beneficial. They have improved visibility into in-transit inventory and eliminated problems reconciling consigned inventory.

NSK Australia was one of the earliest suppliers ANCA invited to use QAD Demand and Delivery. 

“We’re comfortable using it. The screens are simple and clear, making it easy to navigate through the various processes. The filters enable you to find and focus on specific items. The live schedule provides for better monitoring of ANCA’s requirements, which assists our supply planning,” says Angelo Theodoropoulos, Business Development-Automotive at NSK.

ANCA has plans to roll out QAD Demand and Delivery to 100 of their suppliers to further improve supplier performance and procurement efficiency. These top suppliers represent 90 to 95 percent of their inventory buy.

In addition, they have been working with QAD on the next generation of the QAD Demand and Delivery. Being part of the QAD Early Adopter program has given them the ability to work directly with QAD R&D to influence the product’s design and enhance supplier collaboration capabilities.

*QAD Demand and Delivery was formerly known as QAD Supplier Portal.