Infor helps Ferrari drive 40 per cent production growth

This latest development includes integration of Infor ERP with Siemens MES (manufacturing execution system) for flexible production management, all of which was achieved in record time. However, Ferrari CIO Vittorio Boero says the system's power comes from its combination of Infor LN's APS (advanced planning and scheduling), EAM (enterprise asset management), assembly line management, and supply chain management functionality. It's been a surprising journey for Ferrari, particularly given parent company Fiat's centralised and SAP-centric business IT policy. The started a couple of years ago, with Ferrari proving that the Fiat template wasn't the way to go, given it's primary challenge of driving faster production in a configure-to-order environment to capture market share in the world's fastest-growing and increasingly impatient economies. Boero explains that, faced with growing demand for speed and agility in its production processes, Ferrari undertook an extensive review of its processes and identified a range of required improvements. That, he says, led to senior management opting to update the organisation's existing ERP (Baan IV) software to the latest Infor LN version, with project phases covering sport car manufacture, finance, spare parts and ultimately Formula 1. Central to the decision was LN's flexibility and its automotive industry functionality, designed to handle the complexity of customisations. The system proved itself capable of building custom configured vehicles in sequence while optimising production line and supply chain efficiencies. The latter were important, given Ferrari's 'zero shortages' supply chain campaign for lineside delivery, which necessitates data exchange with an external third party logistics provider for material handling and warehouse management. That, in turn, depends on tight integration between the supply chain and manufacturing technology, which has been enabled via Infor's lightweight middleware Infor ION, linking business processes, including order configuration, APS, assembly line scheduling and sequencing, and supplier management. Boero says control is all encompassing, stating, for example, that Ferrari can now freeze engineering changes at the sub-line level while still making changes to the overall bill of materials. IT now works hand in hand with Ferrari's new physical manufacturing technology, he says. LN has also improved processes, including the efficiency of the logistics supply chain, at all stages of manufacturing. And he says that The transition from Baan to LN was delivered in a fraction of the anticipated timeframe, thanks to ION. Indeed, Boero states that the extra capacity effectively enabled by the use of Infor LN will also enable Ferrari to make more engines for other members of the Fiat group, including Maserati. "We are much happier with our new IT infrastructure," he says. "As well as improving flexibility, we have reduced the number of anomalies in the system, which is streamlining the production process further." And he adds: "It has also been a useful experience for us to make these changes and an opportunity to improve the knowledge all our staff have of our internal processes. "With the change encompassing both physical production and the IT supporting it, as well as processes originating at the dealerships, we have been able to establish better relationships between many business departments and IT."