Press Releases
GS Brown Live on VISUAL Manufacturing
Precision engineering firm sought precise data, quick implementation, from Manufacturing & Supply Chain software
14 March, 2000, Royston, Herts (UK) - Lilly Software Associates, Ltd., announces that GS Brown Precision Engineers, Ltd., of Fife, Scotland, have gone live on VISUAL Manufacturing, after a quick and highly efficient implementation. VISUAL Manufacturing is the fully-integrated supply chain execution (SCE) suite from Lilly Software.
GS Brown is an engineer-to-order manufacturer of complex components for the hydraulics, defense, aerospace, instrumentation and electronics industries, and is committed to just-in-time delivery of high volumes through assured supply agreements. "With such demands, GS Brown required not just up-to-date information on production, but up-to-the-minute," said Maz Mohamedali, LSA's UK Director of Sales and Marketing, GS Brown opted for a bar-coding module that is fully integrated with VISUAL Manufacturing. This allows GS Brown to view hours and quantities reported either by operation or by individual labor ticket.
"It's benefited us greatly just to have up-to-date information while a job is running," said Des Brown, GS Brown's Director of Finance and Administration. "Which is something VISUAL Manufacturing has given us. Any system can identify a problem after it happens, whereas VISUAL helps us identify a potential scheduling or delivery problem or a material shortage before it happens, in time to prevent it."
Precision engineering further demands stringent quality control, and G.S.Brown supports such assurance systems as ISO 9002, Machining and Metal Forming to QAS 3289/16 and QAS 3289/17, and Manufacture of Aerospace Components to QAS 3640/65. Each standard requires precise documentation, which is a laborious task by hand, but made easier with VISUAL Manufacturing's Part Traceability module. The module tracks a part from receipt of materials through delivery, creating a profile for each lot, serial number or other specified grouping.
Implementation
All told, this implementation came in at under twelve weeks, which included breaks for Christmas and New Year's, and under budget. Paul Smit, Lilly's VP of European Operations, sees implementation as increasingly important to potential customers. "More and more small and medium enterprises like GS Brown are saying, 'The software is unquestionably the best available, but how good are you at implementation?' They don't have the patience for an eighteen-month installation, aren't going to shut down production for weeks of training, and want to see some returns on their investment next quarter."
Added Maz Mohamedali, "Des Brown stressed that the implementation must not interfere with product delivery. Des and Howard Gowdridge, the LSA Project Manager, agreed the goals and timescales and then continued to work together to achieve them both on time and under budget." Indeed, Plant-Wide Research Group advised companies to "establish the implementation schedule at the outset.", in its December '98 "Plant-Wide Expert" report entitled "Is Rapid Implementation for Real?"
The report further remarked that products like VISUAL Manufacturing which are native to the mid-range market "have built implementations into the product that are appropriate to the mid-market." Mohamedali agrees, adding that "VISUAL is advanced and functionally rich, and it was designed at the outset to be easy to use and implement. Hence, we are able to implement the software in a fraction of the time when compared with less intuitive products."
Des Brown added that "VISUAL's standard system was such a close match to our business operation, we didn't need modification." Brown had overseen other implementations, but found VISUAL Manufacturing "Very intuitive, which made the learning curve very short."
The implementation cost was lower than originally estimated, which Mohamedali attributed to an interested, fast-learning customer. "In terms of our implementation cost, they used about 10 man days of consultancy where we had estimated they would need 20. The credit for that goes to the customer. Des Brown was not just a fast learner, but committed to the project." "A successful implementation plan is based upon commitment from the customer and a strong partnership between the customer and the supplier. We had that in GS Brown, and we'll point to this as an example of what an implementation can be."
About Lilly Software Associates
Lilly Software Associates, Inc. provides a complete line of enterprise and
supply chain solutions for manufacturers and distributors. The VISUAL
Enterprise™ suite of products helps companies capture and analyze real-time data
about all their business processes using ERP, Project Management, Business
Performance Management, Quality Management, Customer Relationship Management,
and Warehouse Management System capabilities. From award-winning software to
strategies in Lean Manufacturing and TOC, Lilly Software offers companies the
tools they need for higher productivity and profitability.
Most VISUAL® applications run on Windows® 98, Windows NT,
Windows 2000, Windows XP, UNIX®, LINUX, Novell®, using
SQLBase®, Microsoft SQL Server®, or ORACLE®
relational databases.
Lilly Software has received many industry awards for its products, service, and
financial growth since its inception. Most recently, the company has been voted
one of the Top 10 Best of Breed solutions for manufacturing by readers of
Consumer Goods Technology, listed in
Software Magazine's Top 500,
selected as a Top 100 Logistics Information Technology Provider in
Inbound Logistics, listed in the Top
100 Application Vendors in Supply Chain
e-Business, included in MSI's
Top 100 for its eighth year, and ranked as one of
Start magazine's Hottest Companies.
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