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FAURECIAFaurecia finds controlling the business less exhausting with the help of Made2Manage

CASE STUDY

CASE STUDY FAURECIA 2

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Faurecia’s Columbus, Indiana, operation specializes in design and prototyping of

automotive and heavy equipment exhaust systems. Serving the major automakers

including Ford, Chrysler, GM, VW and BMW among others’ as well as equipment

makers like John Deere and Caterpillar, Faurecia is a global leader in exhaust

system design.

The Columbus operation is housed in three facilities – Engineering, Test, and

Prototyping, with only the latter involved in production. The prototyping plant

has been using Made2Manage ERP since 1995 to manage production and

inventory. “The rest of the corporation uses other software, including well-

known “big” systems but we’ve found that nothing else does as good a job as

Made2Manage does for our job shop environment,” according to Barry Turnbow,

Support Manager for the Faurecia prototype shop and the person responsible for

scheduling and inventory.

CUSTOMER DETAILSColumbus, Indiana, exhaust system engineering and prototyping division of global corporation Faurecia (France)

Exhaust system prototyping

Serves major OEMs Ford, Chrysler, GM, VW, BMW and others

Also serves large equipment makers such as John Deere, Caterpillar

INDUSTRYAutomotive

APTEAN SOLUTIONMade2Manage

CHALLENGES• Obsoleteandspreadsheet-basedinventoryandschedulingtools

• Norealschedulingorworktrackingcapability

• Inabilitytoquoteaccuratecompletiondates

BENEFITS• Bettercontrolofinventory,visibilityintoneedsandleadtimes

• Reduceddisruption,expediting,chaosontheplantfloor

• Betterabletoschedulework,quotedeliverytimes

• Productivityincreases

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CASE STUDY FAURECIA

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More than 9,000 customers around the world rely on us to give them a competitive edge. By providing innovative, industry-driven enterprise application software, Aptean helps businesses to satisfy their customers, operate most efficiently, and stay at the forefront of their industry.

For more information, visit: www.aptean.com

When Faurecia chose to implement Made2Manage, they had

been relying on an outdated DOS-based system and a lot of

spreadsheets. “We really needed better control of our inventory,”

Turnbow says. “It was very difficult to know what to order. It was

a real challenge to handle the jobs and the paperwork and difficult

to know when a job would be ready to ship.”

As a prototyping shop, Turnbow’s group is always under pressure

to deliver quickly, and every job is different. “We hold some

inventory of common materials but we often have to bring in

specific items for a job,” he says. When a new order comes in, a

quick availability check tells the shop what they have in inventory

and what they need. “Made2Manage really helps us do that,

reducing our lead time and helping to meet customer requests.”

Those new orders are also likely to be disruptive to any production

schedule they already have in place. Made2Manage quickly tells

them what impact the new order will have on the other work that

is already scheduled.

“We have found Made2Manage is easy to learn and very user

friendly,” Turnbow adds. “And Aptean support has been very

good for us.”

In the spirit of continuous improvement, Faurecia’s prototype

shop is working on doing a better job with planning, taking

more advantage of the software’s abilities. There’s always more

they can do, and more the system can do, to help them better

serve their customers. “Planning will help us get a better handle

on our capacity and do a better job of scheduling and quoting

completion dates,” Turnbow says. “We’ll be better able to utilize

our resources and improve productivity and output.

While exhaust systems are their business, they have not come

near exhausting the capabilities of their Made2Manage ERP. In

fact, Faurecia recently signed a multi--year support contract.

According to Turnbow, “the value Aptean offers with its support

and maintenance, both of which we have leaned on throughout

the years, made it an easy decision to lock up a long-term contract

with set, guaranteed rates for these services.”

“The system really suits our needs,” Turnbow says, “and we’re continuing to rely on Made2Manage to help us keep our customers happy.”

Nothingelseouttheredoesasgoodajob of managing a job shop prototyping operation as Made2Manage.

Barry Turnbow Support Manager Faurecia

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