Download PDF
SYSPRO Case Study: Lee Spring Gets More Bounce Per Ounce with SYSPRO
Technology Category
- Functional Applications - Enterprise Resource Planning Systems (ERP)
- Functional Applications - Inventory Management Systems
Applicable Functions
- Sales & Marketing
- Warehouse & Inventory Management
Use Cases
- Inventory Management
Services
- Software Design & Engineering Services
- System Integration
The Challenge
A dozen or so years ago, Lee’s extensive stock line of springs, expanding custom fabrication business and growing worldwide customer base forced the company to computerize its operations. However, when in 1999 Lee wanted to add Windows functionality and upgrade its system to support a greater number of concurrent users, the company was shocked to find that its computer software was no longer being supported. In fact, the software company from whom it purchased the system was no longer in business. “Suddenly, we found we had an orphan system,” says Mike Gisonda, Lee’s MIS Manager. “Our only alternative was to go for an entirely new system.”
About The Customer
Lee Spring is a privately held, 80-year old company based in Brooklyn, New York. The company manufactures an extensive line of springs which it sells primarily to OEMs throughout the world. In fact, the company maintains a stock of more than 9,000 different springs, including compression, extension and tension springs, which are produced in five manufacturing plants located across the United States. Lee Spring also produces custom engineered springs for which it holds approximately 50,000 files, including full documentation and specifications. Today, Lee boasts a worldwide customer base that numbers more than 40,000 individual companies.
The Solution
Gisonda issued an RFP. One, submitted by Atlanta-based Edgeware, a SYSPRO reseller, was of particular interest to Gisonda. The proposal centered on SYSPRO enterprise business software, a modular system that would enable Gisonda to tailor the specific functionality needed by Lee from a variety of interactive manufacturing, accounting and distribution modules. Equally as appealing, the SYSPRO software suited both of Lee’s manufacturing environments – make to stock and build to order. Most importantly, the system’s pricing was competitive. Says Gisonda “SYSPRO was simply the best value for the fit.” After several demonstrations, Gisonda opted for a 96-user SYSPRO system. Gisonda insisted on a phased system implementation to “iron out any kinks in advance.” The approach proved to be more than justified when not one major problem surfaced when the system went live after several months.
Operational Impact
Quantitative Benefit
Related Case Studies.
Case Study
Hospital Inventory Management
The hospital supply chain team is responsible for ensuring that the right medical supplies are readily available to clinicians when and where needed, and to do so in the most efficient manner possible. However, many of the systems and processes in use at the cancer center for supply chain management were not best suited to support these goals. Barcoding technology, a commonly used method for inventory management of medical supplies, is labor intensive, time consuming, does not provide real-time visibility into inventory levels and can be prone to error. Consequently, the lack of accurate and real-time visibility into inventory levels across multiple supply rooms in multiple hospital facilities creates additional inefficiency in the system causing over-ordering, hoarding, and wasted supplies. Other sources of waste and cost were also identified as candidates for improvement. Existing systems and processes did not provide adequate security for high-cost inventory within the hospital, which was another driver of cost. A lack of visibility into expiration dates for supplies resulted in supplies being wasted due to past expiry dates. Storage of supplies was also a key consideration given the location of the cancer center’s facilities in a dense urban setting, where space is always at a premium. In order to address the challenges outlined above, the hospital sought a solution that would provide real-time inventory information with high levels of accuracy, reduce the level of manual effort required and enable data driven decision making to ensure that the right supplies were readily available to clinicians in the right location at the right time.
Case Study
Hardware Retailer Uses Data Warehouse to Track Inventory
Ace tracked which products retailers ordered, when they were ordered and shipped. However, the company could not track or forecast actual sales. Data used for reporting was up to a one-week old, owing to performance and data cleansing issues. Requirement to integrate wholesale and inventory data with POS data to help drive key business decisions, improve category management, lower inventory costs and optimize pricing. Reliance on custom coding to integrate POS data was excessively resource intensive and led to major performance constraints.
Case Study
Expertech - Capital Tool Inventory
Costly tools used to splice fiber optic cables are an important part of Expertech’s operational and capitalized expenses, but the company did not have an automated system in place to track their tools and optimize their usage. The existing data in its tracking system was inaccurate and required manual updating, making it essential for the company to implement an efficient process to track and follow up on its capital tool inventory.
Case Study
Remake Enterprise-to-production System
The client was running a legacy material flow tracking system and wanted to replace the system with a more effective one as the system was increasingly expensive to maintain and support and also was not extendable. The client's IT landscape was filled with modern applications and it was difficult to interface the material flow tracking system with modern applications.
