Popeci Utilaj Greu: Charisma means saving time, that is saving money
Charisma provides us with detailed post-calculation analysis and productivity reports, as well as the possibility of performing a detailed analysis of expenses by cost centers. Based on this, but also on an improved financials-accounting management, we managed to reduce the operational costs
The company
Popeci Utilaj Greu produces for all industries, from welded units with no mechanical processing to complex machineries, performing their installation and commissioning as well.
Popeci Utilaj Greu has over 800 employees and a turnover higher than EUR 20 millions. The company exports to countries such as Germany, USA, Italy, France, Netherlands, United Kingdom, Switzerland, Hungary, Greece or Bulgaria.
The situation
Regardless the perspective - execution, technological processes, part numbers, product accuracy or quality - the manufacturing is an extremely complex field, which requires the use of extremely powerful and reliable calculation systems. And when the company exports its products to countries such as Germany, Netherlands, Greece, UK, the strict requisitions and requirements regarding the quality are more important.
Popeci Utilaj Greu was using different in-house software programs. Their low performance, the failures occurred in assuring data consistency, the differences between inventory data and accounting data, the lack of an application for the elaboration of execution documents and then for tracking the manufacturing operations, the impossibility of getting quickly a series of reports critical for any manufacturing business have been some of the premises in looking for a business management integrated system.
In 2003 the company started a market research in order to purchase an integrated information system. As Mr. Sorin Dumitrescu, IT Manager states: "high technology was the only one that could help us grow on a such complex market and with such a fierce competition such as the automotive market."
The solution
The company started a complex analysis of all the offers on the market, looking for an acknowledged solution at a fair price, that doesn't affect the manufacturing operations with a very high implementation time, yet easy-to-use enough to quickly start the manufacturing processes.
Popeci Utilaj Greu decided upon Charisma system, which met all the required criteria. The implementation of the system has been performed in several stages, starting with the elaboration of technical specifications, then with the implementation of the basic modules - accounting, financials, purchasing, inventory, sales, fixed assets, Human Resources and Payroll - and the third and the most complex stage, the implementation of Manufacturing Management module. This solution wanted to cover all engineering, planning, execution and tracking operations during the manufacturing process.
At the same time, the officials of the two companies have decided upon the specifications of a business intelligence system for generating and processing the performance indicators based on the data existing in the ERP system.
The results
After implementing the integrated information system, the results appeared fast. The system users can track and make quick decisions during all stages of the manufacturing process: order release, supply scheduling, business unit planning and manufacturing flow tracking, manufacturing order management, automatically generated order monitoring, managing and assessing purchase orders, cost assessment, validating each step during the manufacturing flow. Moreover, the management is able to access specific reports regarding the manufacturing results vs. the planned manufacturing, as well as information on the ongoing items.
Charisma Analyzer - the business intelligence system that has been implemented - allows the users to configure the desired reports with a few clicks, having access to detail information on manufacturing processes.
"One can see a significant decrease of the document processing time, of the number of employees within the auxiliary departments (financials-accounting, human resources, sales, engineering), an increase of the analysis capabilities upon the details of accomplishing some works, etc., all being done in a much shorter time; in other words: time saving = money saving." Sorin Dumitrescu, IT Manager, Popeci Utilaj Greu.
Case study revised in 2008.