MANAGEMENT + SYSTEMS
Manufacturers bid farewell to unprofitable projects
Andrew Kinder, director of product marketing at Infor looks at how better bid and project management can lead to increased profitability for manufacturers.
A
s we find our feet in the precarious new world following the latest recession,
discrete manufacturers are focusing their resources into customer retention and growth over and above customer acquisition. The evidence comes from research commissioned by Infor which was undertaken by IDC Manufacturing Insights, and involved 720 discrete
manufacturers being interviewed. In particular, bid and project management has taken centre
stage, second only to customer fulfilment, as a top initiative over the next two years, particularly for those in the industrial equipment and hi-tech sectors. Most manufacturers also admitted to there being a substantial gap between where their bid and project management capabilities are currently, against where they need to be. Where high capital investment items are being produced, well managed bid and project management can make a huge impact
on the bottom line, optimising the financial, manufacturing and people resources involved, thus mitigating risk. However, traditional bid and project management tends to fall short of achieving this best practice, and with customer retention strategies demanding investment, the contingency to absorb these inefficiencies simply isn’t there – any deviation from best practice eats directly into a manufacturer’s profitability. As raw materials costs continue to rise and prices continue to
be driven down, the only viable approach to increasing profitability is to ‘turn up’ the efficiency of the manufacturing process itself. While cost cutting and productivity optimisation have always been a focus, manufacturers must now look far and wide at where additional savings can be derived, and our findings show that bid and project profitability is unchartered territory for many. The biggest challenge in bridging this gap it seems, is system
capabilities. While traditional Material Requirements Planning (MRP) based Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems are effective in supporting production, managing inventory and tracking costs, many fall short of meeting today’s complex requirements. The good news is that a new raft of solutions, which have
functionally built in to maximise profitability from bid and project management, are now available to bridge this gap and reap the associated rewards.
ProgressPlus takes production control to a new level
The latest version of Berkeley Myles’ ProgressPlus technology has been in full operation at a number of its 200 sites since the end of last year and Berkeley Myles says the implementation will continue throughout this year until the benefits are being enjoyed by all of its 1,600 concurrent users.
still and we don’t either. There is no value in cosmetic upgrades and, in order to give clients the service they need, we have completely redesigned ProgressPlus from the bottom up to take current technologies into account. He continued: “This is the second complete revision of our process and management information system since it was first written
B
in 1996. It was completely revamped in 2001 and again at the end of last year and the response from the initial users this time has again been strongly enthusiastic.” With ProgressPlus, Berkeley Myles says it has carved out a significant UK and Irish niche in production control software, which
tracks and records all work undertaken along each and every step of the product manufacturing process, from a customer’s initial enquiry through to sales invoicing. This data, on such items as material tracking for retrospective traceability, stock management and wastage, is then applied to track, manage and develop every aspect of the manufacturing process.
erkeley Myles points out that unlike other companies’ standard upgrades, ProgressPlus has once again been re-written from scratch to take into account the speed and intensity of technological change across both the specialist and non- specialist manufacturing sectors it serves. Tony MacBride, director at Glasgow-based Berkeley Myles, said: “The technology that our customers use doesn’t stand
116 Fastener + Fixing Magazine • Issue 69 May 2011
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