Gearing up for ERP implementation

Brunswick Steel examines process needs to ensure a smooth system rollout

Choosing and implementing a new enterprise resource planning (ERP) system can be a challenge for any shop. Determining what you need and what you want, and how that compares to what a supplier can actually provide, can become a lengthy process. Winnipeg-based Brunswick Steel’s rollout of its new software over the past year is a good example of how it can be done right, serving the interests of all stakeholders in the company.

Legacy Limitations

Brunswick Steel is a metal service centre that over time has incorporated more value-added processing into its operations. Recently this included the addition of fibre laser cutting and increased bending capabilities, alongside its plasma, flame cutting, and sawing services. Although the shop had CO2 lasers previously, the addition of the fibre laser increased the speed and capacity of the shop’s cutting department.

At the same time it also redesigned its shop floor to improve material movement and process flow. Adam Plouffe, now general manager at Brunswick, was brought on at the time for his background in lean and Six Sigma training. The business was soon implementing lean strategies, looking for efficiencies wherever they were possible.

It became clear that the shop’s existing ERP system wouldn’t be robust enough to grow alongside the changes being made.

“The software we had was geared to a service centre model,” said Plouffe. “For stocked goods it worked relatively well, and for sales entry it worked well, but finance had to do everything outside the system. In addition, production had many workarounds because the system didn’t work the way we needed it to. There were also a number of constraints to making changes to that system, which was around 10 years old when we started considering our ERP strategy.”

Basic System Needs

Plouffe had worked with other ERP systems in the past, and though they were more robust than Brunswick’s legacy system, they came with their own limitations.

“You could do virtually anything with the systems that I was using, but you also needed a full-time programmer to manage it,” he said. “You had to manually set everything up on those systems. When we started our ERP research here, we were outsourcing most of our IT needs. One of our first decisions was to look for a system that wouldn’t require any programming expertise. We wanted something that our existing team could handle.”

The other major concern for Plouffe was that he didn’t want anyone to have to do any workarounds.

At the same time it was choosing an ERP system, Brunswick was going through a process of improving its inventory management, cutting down on stock in house and improving its product turnovers.

“Every ERP system I’ve worked with in the past, for one module or another, whether it be purchasing or finance or some other department, involved somebody having an Excel sheet in the background or on the side to look at and reference. I didn’t want that. To fully run a proper ERP system, all the data points need to be entered into the system, and from that everyone needs to get the same visual representation for scheduling and planning purposes. I wanted clear KPIs so we could see immediately how we were doing in each area of the company.”

While Plouffe knew the basics of what he wanted, it was also important that every other stakeholder group explain the outputs that they required.

“It was important to me that everyone look beyond the limitations of the system we had to what their ideal was, what they required of the system to make it worth the investment,” he said. “The needs of the departments were very dynamic, and we had to meet several times to clarify what each of us needed. We are all Type A personalities, so we had a clear idea of how we wanted our process to flow. But with a new ERP system, sometimes it’s important to look beyond the steps that get you to your destination and think first about what you want that destination to be. Sometimes the ERP will get you there in a different way that makes more sense for the business.”

Stakeholder groups included finance, sales, purchasing, and, of course, the shop floor.

After several months of research, the Brunswick team decided to invest in Global Shop Solutions’ ERP system as it met the company’s needs in terms of flexibility and simplicity (in terms of not requiring a programmer on staff).

Continuous Improvement Continues

The choice of an ERP system wasn’t, of course, being made in a vacuum. Brunswick was continuing to improve its processes at the same time.

“Formerly we had a large inventory on hand that hid discrepancies,” said Plouffe. “This was something we had been working on. We scaled down our inventory and in the process highlighted a number of issues. Once we were able to streamline that, we knew that the information we would be feeding our new ERP system would be better.”

The Brunswick team tackled its inventory in the wake of the U.S. tariff issue of two years ago.

“I didn’t want that exposure for us anymore, so we’ve significantly improved our product turnovers,” said Plouffe. “We receive deliveries of products more often, thereby keeping the amount of inventory on hand at one time at a more manageable level. It creates a tighter supply chain.”

Brunswick integrated two nesting programs – one for its laser and another for its plasma and flame cutters – into the ERP system’s Advanced Planning and Scheduling Module. All the information integrated in those systems is transferred onto the Microsoft Power BI platform, which is a data visualization system. Sales, purchasing, and production all use that data visualization program to see where production is at any given moment of the day.

Making improvements like this while prepping for an ERP rollout ensured that data entering the new system would be as clean as possible. The introduction of bar-coding for inventory entry of new materials coming in, for instance, would remove the ever-present concern of manual entry of information.

Initial Wins

The ERP system Brunswick chose did most of what the company hoped it would do.

“Before, our operators were spending about 25 per cent of their days doing data entry, punching in when an order is complete, manually entering drops, and other tasks,” said Plouffe. “This system does a lot of that automatically for all of our equipment. That eliminates a lot of human error, which contributes to fewer inventory discrepancies as well.”

In fact, the system was so easy to use for the shop floor that staff, after a week of training and a second week of follow-up, kept asking when they were going to get more training.

“We’d taken away so much of the administrative work, they thought there was more to come,” said Plouffe. “Meanwhile they were cutting more parts and getting more productive on each shift.”

Perhaps the biggest initial win, however, was for the finance department.

“Finance was getting good, accurate financial statements from the system,” said Plouffe. “It didn’t require a lot of tedious input work.”

Sales Support

However, the ERP system still needed to be integrated with other tools to ensure the information it was working with functioned as it needed to, particularly for the sales team. For instance, it was necessary to find a way to have nesting software communicate with the ERP system to ensure that when an order goes into the system it takes into account how nesting might change depending on order start and completion dates.

Brunswick’s GM Adam Plouffe says that the success of any ERP system is in how you use it, “and that involves having procedures – understanding how you want to run things and ensuring everyone understands your expectations. And then, if you find a better way to do things, you change it and retrain. It’s continuous improvement, and without having that alongside the ERP system, any company will struggle.”

“What would happen before is we would say in a sales meeting, ‘We have eight hours available on the fibre laser tomorrow,’” said Plouffe. “The problem was that six sales members would all go out and sell that eight hours because there was no ability to book that production space in real time.

“To solve this problem, we integrated two nesting programs – one for our laser and another for our plasma and flame cutters – into the ERP system’s Advanced Planning and Scheduling Module,” said Plouffe. “From there we wanted some sort of platform that could allow everyone to see, in a simple manner, our real-time capacity. So what we’ve done is pushed all the information integrated in those systems onto the Microsoft Power BI platform, which is a data visualization system. Sales, purchasing, and production all use that data visualization program to see where we are at any given moment of the day. The sales team can access that information out on a call, and there’s a screen being introduced in the sales office so that they can always see quickly what is going on on the shop floor.”

The team also spent a lot of time reviewing the order-entry processes, doing speed tests and looking at best practices.

“We’ve come a long way with that,” said Plouffe.

Brunswick also integrated SecturaSoft quoting software with the ERP platform to assist the sales team.

“The combination of the ERP and the quoting software eliminated a lot of work on the sales side,” he said. “The sales team now gets a nice visual of what parts are in stock, and if it’s not in stock, it tells them when it will be coming in. The quoting software has revolutionized how we quote processing jobs.”

As Plouffe explained, Brunswick’s goal is to be as responsive to clients as possible. Being straight up with customers about stock and delivery times creates a level of trust that strengthens the relationship.

That sort of transparency extends to Brunswick’s suppliers. Although the company doesn’t have an actual vendor management inventory system, vendors do receive an accurate inventory breakdown from the company regularly. This way they can better prepare for future orders and manage their own supply carefully.

Procedure Documentation

Plouffe is understandably happy with how the company’s ERP rollout has gone over the past year, but as with anything else in a shop, he insists it’s just one more tool.

“It’s all in how you use it, and that involves having procedures – understanding how you want to run things and ensuring everyone understands your expectations. And then, if you find a better way to do things, you change it and retrain. It’s continuous improvement, and without having that alongside the ERP system, any company will struggle.”

Brunswick has a full-time training co-ordinator who follows TWI training practices. Staff attend several training sessions each week.

“Most of our training is around a task within a job or process,” said Plouffe. “It’s often something that can be explained in two pages, something that the team members can learn and apply rapidly. In a 30-minute session they’ve got it down and they understand why it’s important.”

With the training, ERP, and lean management of the shop, Brunswick has created an environment that can withstand challenging times like the ones we’ve experienced this year.

“We reduced our inventory by half without affecting customer orders, we’ve made financial management processes and order processing simpler to manage, and we continue to find ways to make our work better.”

The ERP system was an important part of that, but it couldn’t have happened without a concerted effort from the company’s whole team.

Editor Robert Colman can be reached at rcolman@canadianfabweld.com.

Brunswick Steel, www.brunswicksteel.com

About the Author
Canadian Fabricating & Welding

Rob Colman

Editor

1154 Warden Avenue

Toronto, M1R 0A1 Canada

905-235-0471

Robert Colman has worked as a writer and editor for more than 25 years, covering the needs of a variety of trades. He has been dedicated to the metalworking industry for the past 13 years, serving as editor for Metalworking Production & Purchasing (MP&P) and, since January 2016, the editor of Canadian Fabricating & Welding. He graduated with a B.A. degree from McGill University and a Master’s degree from UBC.