Microsoft Dynamics AX puts Team Lotus in driver’s seat

Richard St Clair-Quentin, Team Lotus commercial manager, explains that in October 2009, the organisation had 11 staff, six subcontract designers, a handful of suppliers, and a few desktop computers running CAD at its Norfolk HQ. Within 12 months, the F1 team had grown to almost 200 employees, a fully functioning CAD system and a full rollout of Microsoft Dynamics AX, managing 720 suppliers. "It was imperative to us that the ERP system strictly control and manage our stock. Our cars are highly engineered, and we use expensive materials, such as carbon fibre and titanium," explains St Clair-Quentin. "So we have to be sure that we have full control and visibility over purchasing, manufacturing, stock holding and material consumption, all of which is now underpinned by Microsoft Dynamics AX," he adds. One of the key considerations, he says, has been handling the sheer numbers of drawings – more than 100 every day – and components (up to 5,000 at any one time) that go into a Formula One racing car. "Every part of the process has to be right. There is no room for error," comments St Clair-Quentin. "We have relied heavily on the expertise of the eBECS team to implement Microsoft Dynamics AX to monitor and manage this process," he says. "When the Grand Prix season starts, we drop everything to go racing, and, on occasion, this has meant leaving eBECS in charge of the wheel until we are back. It hasn't let us down." And St Clair-Quentin adds that the ease with which Team Lotus was able to integrate and deploy Microsoft Dynamics AX helped the organisation reap benefits quickly. "Just four weeks after go-live, eBECS was able to hand over the running of the solution." In the future, he expects eBECS to broaden the scope of the Dynamics AX implementation, expanding warehouse stock and manufacturing control, improving supplier management, increasing impact analysis reports around engineering changes, and building business process improvements in finance.