Steelcase International chooses IFS to run international manufacturing
1 min read
IFS has received yet another multi-million contract, this with eur709 million Steelcase International, the global office furniture supplier, and covering licenses and implementation services likely to involve 1,500 users at 15 of its 51 manufacturing sites outside North America. Go live is due at the end of this year, and will initially involve two manufacturing sites in England. Brian Tinham
IFS has received yet another multi-million contract, this with eur709 million Steelcase International, the global office furniture supplier, and covering licenses and implementation services likely to involve 1,500 users at 15 of its 51 manufacturing sites outside North America. Go live is due at the end of this year, and will initially involve two manufacturing sites in England.
Steelcase says it’s planning to “significantly improve” production processes, bringing in shorter manufacturing lead times and lowering production costs, not least through standardisation of production management operations across sites and greatly improved end-to-end visibility.
The firm will replace its existing ranges of different legacy systems at production sites in Europe, Africa, Latin America and Asia, and implement the new common standards based on its new systems. Steelcase says it expects this to deliver fast return on investment.
Steelcase CIO Pierre d’Imbleval says: “We focused on two main criteria in the choice of our new solution: to enable configurable product options to be managed during the entire manufacturing process; and to ensure a fast implementation and rapid user acceptance thanks to software ergonomics.”
IFS is to develop generic interfaces with Steelcase International’s SAP software, which will then be used as standard interfaces for the subsequent implementations of IFS Applications.
The system is based on IFS’s Manufacturing and Distribution components, with functionality for make-to-order, configure-to-order and dynamic order processing.
Amor Bekrar, managing director of IFS France, says, “IFS has proven that its component architecture and open technology facilitate the integration of IFS Applications with legacy systems.”
Meanwhile, IFS’ South African subsidiary, IFS SA, has won the largest implementation services and software license contract in its 18-month history. MTN Nigeria Communications (MTN) has commissioned the firm to implement computing systems worth $2.7 million within three-months.
MTN is one of three recently appointed cellular network license holders tasked with establishing GSM services in Nigeria.
