Filtronic Comtek improves control over global supply chain on ERP upgrade

Filtronic Comtek manufactures base station equipment for the major mobile phone infrastructure players, and has an extensive global supply chain involving outsourcing of mechanical aluminium parts prior to final assembly and testing at Filtronic. Also, the UK plants in Shipley, Wolverhampton and Scotland are geared primarily to prototyping and small scale production, leaving the vast majority of the company’s make-to-order production to its China operations – which are also due to be upgraded to the same system later this year. Filtronic Comtek has been a long-term user of SyteLine ERP, with sales order processing, financials, inventory and manufacturing planning implemented 10 years ago. But its in-house written design and manufacturing execution system (MES) wasn’t integrated. Filtronic Group IT manager Mike O’Carroll says: “One of the primary reasons for moving to the latest release of the software was the fact that the underlying architecture of Infor ERP SyteLine is Microsoft SQL Server. We developed our manufacturing control systems in house on this platform, which now means we will be able to achieve tight integration between our systems. “Automation, instead of manual intervention, will now mean we will have full control over our inventory and order shipment status on a global basis. “The new system will also help us maintain the flexibility we need to cope with ever-changing customer orders. 90% of our orders are make-to-order and customer requirements change wildly on a daily basis. So we need full control over our supply chain in order to keep pace and meet our global customers’ demands profitably.”