Pretoria, 05 Dec 2014
About Isuzu Truck South Africa
Catering for the commercial truck business, and with 35 dealers, Isuzu Truck South Africa offers its clients the best truck for their needs, as well as world-class after-sales support to right-hand drive countries in Africa including Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Mauritius.
Operating in the capital goods side of the automotive industry, the prime goal of the company is customer care. Craig Uren, COO of Isuzu Truck SA explains the company offers unique, specialised and high-value trucks with a commercial impact, aimed at generating revenue for their owners. Turnaround time and speed to the market with a complete solution is a critical factor, "Part of the product we sell is incomplete when it leaves the factory, so the supply chain is a very important part of our business," he elaborates.
The business case
After gaining independence from its parent company, Isuzu Truck South Africa needed a solution for dealer and OEM management that would unify operations on a single platform. With a legacy infrastructure falling short of current requirements, the previous system was not able to accommodate the company's more distinctive process management needs.
For Isuzu Truck South Africa, a back-office system that didn't hinder or distract was imperative, as it runs a high-value and low-transactional order business. The company thus decided on 4most's EMA, powered by SAP Business One for a more specialised and flexible solution.
"Within being different we threw away the textbooks and we basically asked 4most to address our needs as to what we wanted that was commonsensical, logical and would make our business flexible and efficient," says Uren.
Streamlining business processes
4most's solution gives the company the ability to manage the vehicle all the way through to a complete good, and that is the key success factor and the attraction of its business enabler. "Our business enabler is that we are in the supply chain, we are not just an OE, the supply chain is probably more important to our existence than just the production and distribution of the hardware," Uren emphasises.
In addition, he explains the automotive business does not have high margins; but rather has to contend with the risks of having too much inventory on hand, as well as very long lead times and extensive supply chains from source. An advantage of having a flexible and customisable enterprise management system in place, such as EMA, is that the company can reduce these risks by offering far shorter lead times.
"Now we can order all the ancillary equipment to get to the completed good, so when we put that vehicle to stock, any other material that we needed to complete the vehicle would become available in the next 30 days; we can order it all up on the system, and marry it together. Previously it was impossible to do that," he elaborated.
Benefits, returns and all-round-savings
In practical terms, this translates into an increased response time to the marketplace. It enables Isuzu Trucks to provide its customers with their order much faster, while simultaneously mitigating against inventory values, holding costs, and other downstream inefficiencies.
"One of the critical factors is that we can turn around and give the vehicle to the customer in 30 days instead of 180 days," says Uren. "Previously it was very much a manual thing, trying to remember a purchase order you placed five months ago. It was hugely time-consuming and clumsy. Now it is all on the system and monitored throughout."
Additionally, the fact that EMA is a cloud solution means that Isuzu Truck South Africa is able to get its dealers onto the system with a minimum of fuss, as all they require is a username, password and internet connection. For this reason and more, they are spending a tenth of what they used to on systems.
A single source of information for both Isuzu and its dealers now allows for a clear communication channel as well as a trust environment. Dealers can view the entire process online and can access data 24/7, making it easy for them to monitor stock and systems. This also eliminates unnecessary time wastage with regards to vehicle or warranty queries as both parties have full visibility of the dealers stock and warranty transactions.
Through the solution, the company has drastically reduced administration, paperwork and employee frustration. "Previously, we had three people processing vehicles, and they could probably do 150 vehicles a month with the required admin," continues Uren. "Those same three people are doing 400 to 500 a month now quite comfortably because it is all pretty streamlined for them."
Uren goes on to explain how the company have saved 100% time in the supply chain environment and how it now has control. Everything is trackable, traceable and it is able to monitor and identify where things went wrong or didn't go wrong. "The company is now able to pay its dealers and suppliers more quickly, and we are also in a position for the banks to pay us faster as well."
Looking ahead
As to what lies ahead now that Isuzu Trucks SA has reached its goal of becoming local market leaders, Uren states the company is continually developing and implementing solutions that are making their business more efficient, more responsive and cutting down on the mundane, unnecessary admin.
He revealed that the company is looking at the rest of sub-Saharan Africa as part of their business focus. "Business is about change and you need to be able to adapt and move with change quickly because we rely on customers; without customers we can't develop or sell and generate revenue. However, to stay in touch with the real marketplace, a business must remain up to date. Part of this means that your enterprise management system cannot be a distraction and needs to help you address the fundamentals and goals of your business," says Uren
Uren testifies that the system has allowed the company the opportunity to grow their business and to be very bold and progressive in their marketplace. "We're very pleased we went with SAP Business One, because really our lives would be quite stressful, challenging, we would still be where we were five years ago. Though the last two years have been hugely successful for us, having achieved Market Leader status last year, I think we are just hopefully scraping the beginnings of its true worth," he concludes.
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