Reckitt & Colman is an international manufacturer of household and pharmaceutical products employing 17 000 people around the world. Established in 1840, the company manufactures in more than 30 countries, sells products in more than 170 countries and has annual revenues of $4 billion.Technology challengeTo capitalise on growth opportunities, Reckitt & Colman is transforming an international group of locally focused companies into an integrated global enterprise. To support this transition, the company needed to create a common, distributed system and technology infrastructure providing:* Reliable and powerful processing* Single, scalable architecture* Ease of operations* Low cost of ownershipTechnology solutionIBM AS/400 running BPCS enterprise-wide solutions from international IBM Business Partner - System Software Associates (SSA). The solution delivers support for:* Supply chain management* Enterprise-wide financial management and reporting* Manufacturing and procurementThe 21st century holds the promise of rapid growth for Reckitt & Colman, a leading manufacturer, marketer and distributor of hundreds of household and pharmaceutical products. Disappearing trade barriers ushering in new world markets are creating new opportunities. To tap into these opportunities, the company needed to bring a number of its country-based operations together into a single integrated global business based on seven geographic regions - Africa and Middle East, Australasia, East Asia, Europe, Latin America, North America and South Asia.It also needed to create a common systems and technology framework to support this new business model. By integrating its R&D, marketing, sales and manufacturing operations, the company would achieve three important advantages:* Faster growth through shared innovation and improved speed-to-market* Improved customer service through better supply chain management* Improved cost-effectivenessReckitt & Colman`s foundation for the future? A common environment built on IBM AS/400 and BPCS software from SSA."BPCS and AS/400 will provide Reckitt & Colman with a single solution that can be applied consistently across our business, enabling us to plan, manage and operate at the local, regional and global levels," says Alan Wright, the company`s IS group director. "For example, we are able to manage supply across our total European business while recognising the unique characteristics of individual country markets."An ideal solution for growth"AS/400 and BPCS is the ideal solution for Reckitt & Colman", adds Wright. "It enables us to build a secure global technology infrastructure at a reasonable cost. The proven reliability of AS/400 and the worldwide support available from IBM and SSA are also key factors".By implementing BPCS software on AS/400 systems, Reckitt & Colman is creating a global platform for enterprise-wide financial, manufacturing and supply chain management. It is also ensuring Year 2000 compliance across its operations. Other benefits include:* Added economies of scale in dealing with global suppliers. In Europe, for example, all procurement data is now available from a single database using globally consistent definitions for suppliers, items, etc. This enables Reckitt & Colman to improve significantly the efficiency and effectiveness of the total procurement process.* Improved control of manufacturing and distribution operations, both within and across regions. With multiple manufacturing sites across Europe, each producing for all European markets, Reckitt & Colman now has consistent visibility of requirements, stock in transit, and stock within each distribution center, which allows better and more responsive management of the total supply chain. Where products are produced in one location for global markets, such as in pharmaceuticals, the common implementation of BPCS, combined with common data definitions and a global network, will allow Reckitt & Colman to maintain this total supply chain visibility.* Streamlined business processes resulting in increased responsiveness to customers. The company`s integrated systems will enable it to improve its ways of working and ensure that information is immediately available to all parts of the organisation involved in serving customers.* Enhancements in the efficiency and effectiveness of Reckitt & Colman support processes have also been enabled by the BPCS implementation. All European financial information is, for example, now fed from manufacturing and distribution into one flexible financial system that enables Reckitt & Colman to manage its total European business better by easily providing different views of the same base data, as well as supporting country-specific statutory requirements. In addition, "back office" efficiency has been improved through the use of one system."BPCS and AS/400 will give us the reliability, flexibility and functionality we need to support our core business operations," says Wright. "In total, the solution currently supports a network of almost 1 000 users across the world. As that number grows, we are confident it will give us the computing power we need for the future."A global foundation for 21st century computingToday, AS/400 and BPCS version 6 and version 4 anchor Reckitt & Colman`s global network operations. AS/400 servers at the regional or country level are connected to PC-based LANs in the operational units. In turn, these are linked through a global WAN. For example, in Europe, Reckitt & Colman operations in 13 countries are supported from one data centre based in Paris.The global network also supports other applications including e-mail, Lotus Notes, and data transfer to the company`s data warehouse and EIS systems.In addition, BPCS provides the basis for increasing use of EDI across the group with customers and suppliers. Further developments to support electronic commerce using BPCS version 6 are also planned."The AS/400-BPCS solution will enable Reckitt & Colman to access and extract the enterprise-level information we need, when and where we need it," adds Wright."This means we will be able to make better business decisions and respond much faster to changing markets."
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