The Company: Garland Industries, Inc., a leading manufacturer and distributor of high-performance roofing and flooring solutions for commercial, industrial, and public properties, has 11 different companies with eight offices in Canada, the U.S. and the U.K. and more than 500 employees.
The Challenge: The company’s home-grown Informix application simply did not offer the integration options, quick data access, and reporting capabilities Garland Industries needed to stay on top of its growth and expansion. “We were looking for true business intelligence,” says Bruce Emrick, director of IT for Garland Industries. “We needed a way to effectively analyze our data and workflow to improve our business processes.”
The Strategy: Garland Industries’ process manufacturing is similar to that of chemical manufacturers; its various roofing products and coatings are made from formulas of rubber, sand and asphalt. While the company maintains a base stock level of its most popular products, other production is in response to orders.
The company needed software with an MRP function and chose Sage ERP X3.
“MRP allows us to see the entire scope,” says Dan Healey, Garland Industries’ plant manager. “Before I would have to look at every single order. Now, I can break down demand by dates and products. I also can track where our products are sent.” Computers in the warehouse enable staff to record manufacturing data in real time, driving efficiency throughout the organization. “We know precisely what inventory we have available at any time,” Emrick says. “There is no longer a delay in recording activity on our work orders.”
The Results: Garland Industries is in the process of rolling out Sage ERP X3 to each of its 11 companies. Each successive implementation has been faster and easier that the one prior. “Most recently we converted our Canadian company to Sage ERP X3,” Emrick says. “It required only minimal man hours and was accomplished quickly. And we were able to accommodate the unique processing they required easily.”
A version of this case study ran as part of the 2012 Software Case Study Guide in the September 2012 issue of Manufacturing AUTOMATION.
