Y2K pressures, production efficiency targets and the need for a scalable platform to streamline and control its core processes has seen the contract manufacturing division of Tellumat in East London revamp its business management system infrastructure to the tune of R1,6m.
Formed late last year following DiData's acquisition of the Plessey Group, Tellumat is primarily focused on the telecommunications and defence electronics markets. Its contract manufacturing division in East London manufactures pay-television decoders, television sets, circuit breakers and electricity meters for the local and international markets.
The ERP project, implemented by Q Data Consulting is based around the CS/3 solution from Sage International running on Windows NT and Microsoft's SQL Server 7. It replaces a moribund AS/400-based Business Management System which had been in use for about ten years.
Craig Tyzack, financial manager at Tellumat, East London explains: "We have two manufacturing processes: complete electronic assemblies from scratch, and sub-assemblies for further integration by other suppliers. If the supply of materials and the differing labour and machining requirements are factored in, it's clear that our production supply chain becomes complex."
In addition, the company is in the process of rolling out a bar code tracking system as part of the project. Using this in conjunction with CS/3 software it will be possible to closely monitor the entire production process, says Tyzack.
"We have already seen greater accuracy in our stock control and materials requirements planning (MRP), knowing exactly where we are with production at any given point. This has enabled us to plan a move to the just-in-time model [where stock is not stored but ordered just ahead of when it is needed]."
Tyzack says that it is now possible to run the MRP system during working hours and ascertain material requirements in about three minutes - previously this had to be done after normal production schedules and could take anything up to four hours to run.
System integration was also a problem in the past. For example, debtors would be run on a spreadsheet while the cash book involved a separate accounting package. With CS/3, besides improving overall control and efficiency, Tellumat now has a fully integrated system that provides an enterprise-wide view of its operations.
Ashley Ellington, divisional manager at Sage International Africa says: "Because CS/3 provides capabilities with a fit for the electronics industry, it enabled the product to become fully deployed in a short period of time ensuring that Tellumat benefits from a rapid return on its investment as well as low cost of ownership."
Tyzack concurs: "On the whole, we experienced a smooth transition to the new system, and, based on these early promising results, we expect to see a return on investment in less than 18 months."
Fact file
Tellumat chose a 24-user licence for Tetra Software CS/3, deployed on a Windows NT platform and sourcing from an MS SQL 7 database.
Sage International pipped Impact, Mapics, SAP and System 21 to the post in winning the revamp order, mainly due to the solution's price-performance qualities.
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