HW Plastics’ APS to get immediate ROI

HW Plastics, one of the UK’s biggest manufacturers of rigid and cellular PVC for use in window frames and roofs, expects to go live with £250,000 worth of APS (advanced planning and scheduling) software from Geac Enterprise Solutions in the spring of 2003. The firm says its analysis of properly synchronised finite planning of manufactured and purchased items shows an expected 20% cut in finished goods inventory while maintaining customer delivery service that will alone mean “an immediate return on the investment”. It’s going to implement the APS system across three production sites in Macclesfield, Scunthorpe and Congelton, and it’s introducing Geac inventory management software and warehousing to look after its central distribution operation in Stoke-on-Trent. It’s an interesting development. Geac’s marketing director Alastair Middleton says the company is seeing growing adoption of APS by existing and new manufacturing customers. “It’s still a small percentage,” he says, “but it is finally happening.” HW Plastics, which supplies fabricators throughout the UK, has to turn round most orders within 24 hours yet to date, despite the complexity, planning has been manual. Steve Mabbott, head of supply chain planning, says that with product and production requirements becoming increasingly complex that was no longer tenable, particularly as it was seeking to reduce, not increase, operational costs. The firm chose Geac’s APS because it saw the advantages of working with a single integrated supply chain production management and scheduling system. In all there will be 85 users, all linked to one IBM iSeries (AS/400) model 800 unit. Benefits won’t come without some business process re-engineering, and Mabbott says: “Although we’re going through a business transformation exercise, I believe one of the biggest hurdles we will face is the culture change. Our production planners will no longer be required to make adjustments to the plans – they’ll be asked to trust the plans that the APS engine creates. “Instead we want them to focus on improving the quality of our forecast data by spending more time discussing customer requirements and dealing with suppliers. In this way we really can use the APS engine to the fullest in order to create a very smooth supply chain.”