Navision used successfully in military production industry

The South African defence industry has become internationally renowned as a producer of world-class armaments and related equipment. So much so that many local military equipment producers are today leading exporters of their products, and as such make a vital contribution to the country`s economy. One such company is Advanced Technologies and Engineering (ATE), an international aeronautical firm that offers aeronautical solutions for military aircraft operational requirements.

A privately owned company, ATE specialises in avionics and weapons delivery system design, development and integration for military fighters and trainers, and for military attack and support helicopters. Additionally, it is involved in the design and development of unmanned air vehicles. Since its establishment in 1984, ATE has sustained rapid growth in size and turnover, to become the second largest defence exporter in South Africa. Its customer base includes BAE Systems in the UK, Pilatus Aircraft Company in Switzerland, THALES in France, the South African Air Force and the South African Army.

To ensure that it maintains this impressive track record, ATE needs a flexible and fully integrated business management system that responds to the dynamic environment in which it operates. Consequently, it relies on the tried-and-tested Navision Financials application from Navision South Africa.

"Before installing Navision Financials three years ago, we used a solution that offered accounting functionality only," relates ATE project manager DuP du Plessis. "It soon became apparent, however, that this was insufficient. As a systems house, many of our engineers had created their own systems and databases over the years, and trying to manage them in a disparate fashion had become an administrator`s nightmare. Clearly, a solution that could integrate with our material requirement planning (MRP) system as well as our configuration control system, EMS 2000, was required."

ATE considered various financial applications, but found only Navision to be capable of meeting its specific requirements.

ATE decided to implement Navision Financials at the end of 1998, and Navision Solution Centre Easirun was contracted to perform the relevant customisation and roll out.

"Navision Financials is a flexible and fully integrated enterprise business solution for mid-size companies," explains Easirun`s Doug Arnold. "Besides accounting, it can be used by every department at ATE. Project managers use it to allocate resources and track costs against budgets, while purchasing agents balance supplies with ATE`s demands, obtaining the necessary components quickly and cheaply,"

"We wanted to have the system up-and-running before the end of the financial year in February 1999," says Du Plessis. "Initially, we decided to run our existing system in parallel with Navision for about two to three months to facilitate a smooth changeover, but Easirun carried out the implementation so well that after only a week of using it we decided to discontinue the old system."

Du Plessis says the Navision solution is a dramatic improvement on the company`s previous financial system. "Navision Financials provides requisition, purchase ordering and accounts payable features that are fully integrated with the Inventory and General Ledger, capabilities which the previous system never had. Previously, our project managers had to do their project planning and budgeting on spreadsheets or other project applications, and import the relevant figures into the financial system. With Navision, everything is integrated. Planning is done using the Jobs module, which provides detailed accounting of all cost and billings for a project. The module also reduces the amount of detail needed to maintain in the General Ledger. As costs are incurred on a job, they are recorded in the job ledger, and passed to the other areas of the system."

"The smooth interface with the configuration control system benefits not only our inventory control on Navision, but also the rapid development of prototypes by our R&D department and the manufacturing of various assemblies and systems in our production facilities."

ATE is so impressed with the Navision system that it plans to not only upgrade to the recently launched Navision Attain version early in February, but also to implement Navision Manufacturing at the same time.

"Attain delivers new financial management and multilanguage capabilities, plus integrated functionality to support supply chain collaboration, e-commerce, customer relationship management (CRM) and service management," says Arnold. "Navision Manufacturing will give ATE the flexibility to act timeously and effectively, to meet its customers` demands."

"In the armaments industry in particular, rapid change is the order of the day, and firms that demonstrate speed and flexibility have a distinct advantage over their competitors. By customising the Manufacturing module to suit their business, ATE will be able to perform truly agile manufacturing. In addition, Attain will provide them with more ways to optimise and grow their business," Arnold concludes."