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About Sturgis
Founded in 1966, Michigan-based Sturgis Molded Products Company (SMP)
is a one-stop shop for cost-effective, "total solutions molding,"
providing, in addition to full service tool production, innovative plastic
injection molding solutions to the medical, automotive, consumer, industrial,
and heavy truck industries. Widely recognized for its expertise, SMP offers
superior tool design, production, prototyping, engineering, and scientific
molding, as well as full product launch support and a number of quality
processes such as metal-to-plastic conversion, insert molding, and in-mold
film processing.
Return on Investment
- Reduced expedited freight costs approximately 95%
- Accelerated EDI turnaround
- Reduced repair time by 75%
- Eliminated excess data entry
- Improved internal and customer communications
- Cut month-end close time as much as 75%
- Gained 20% more press time through preventative maintenance
Software
EnterpriseIQ™ ERP software system, including: RealTime Production,
Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and Warehouse Management modules.
Hardware
Oracle database with windows-based server platform.
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Sturgis Molded Products Company Optimizes Efficiency with
IQMS Real-time Enterprise and Manufacturing Software
For Michigan-based Sturgis Molded Products Company (SMP),
a foremost injection molder, success comes down to two things: precision
and agility. Founded by a toolmaker forty years ago, SMP serves a number
of high-demand markets, including the medical, automotive, consumer, industrial,
and heavy truck industries, providing quality molded parts and components
according to a diverse range of customer specifications and shipment protocols.
Within this dynamic framework, SMP must be meticulous in its manufacturing
performance and nimble in its ability to optimize plant operations. This
is why in June 2003 SMP sought to upgrade its dated, multi-system ERP
software.
"We were getting to the point where our previous system
could not support company growth," said Carol MacDonald, IS manager
at SMP. "We also wanted to move to a true Windows-based solution
and add a quality system and preventative maintenance software."
However, after assessing the cost to retrofit its old ERP
system, and acknowledging the number of third-party vendors it would take
to fulfill the company's growing business needs, MacDonald and others
at SMP agreed: The company needed a single-source solution that would
enable it to exceed its customers' quality and delivery expectations,
while gaining operational efficiencies that would directly benefit SMP's
bottom line.
SMP considered several ERP options before purchasing EnterpriseIQ
along with the EDI, Warehouse Management, and RealTime Production Monitoring
modules. SMP liked that EnterpriseIQ covered all of its ERP and Manufacturing
needs with one cohesive system, and that additional functionality could
be added as needed without the use of third party software. The company
went live with IQMS in May 2004, and has since seen benefit in almost
every sector of its business, from tooling and production to customer
support and product delivery.
"Our goal for the new ERP system was to improve efficiency
in a number of areas," said MacDonald. "For example, our old
bar coding software used as many as 12 different databases, which made
it easy for a press operator to inadvertently choose the wrong label.
The IQMS ShopData feature and Warehouse Management module eliminates the
guesswork, making it easy to simultaneously manage bar coding for multiple
customers. We saw that as a real value, and it's just one of the reasons
we switched to IQMS."
Another critical area where SMP sought to gain efficiencies
was in the company's ability to deliver improved EDI capabilities. In
the past, SMP had to manage a manual import/export process between its
EDI and ERP applications, a task that lumbered under any variances or
changes a customer might request.
"The IQMS EDI Module has enabled us to greatly accelerate
EDI turnaround through automation, and it's given us the flexibility we
need to customize our processes and data reporting to fulfill individual
specifications," said MacDonald. "With EDI in place, we have
more control over the order process, which has allowed us to save as much
as 95% in expedited freight costs because we can better manage customer
change requests."
As a single-source solution, EnterpriseIQ requires data
to be entered into the system only once. This has allowed SMP to eliminate
excess data entry and improve the speed and accuracy of internal reporting.
With efficiency gains in these areas, SMP has cut its month-end close
time more than 75%. EnterpriseIQ has also enabled SMP to gain efficiencies
through better preventative maintenance, reducing repair time as much
as 75% to gain 20% more press time
EnterpriseIQ has helped SMP to improve how it manages the
complexities of its business and enabled the company to better serve its
goal of providing total solutions molding. SMP has a bigger sales volume
now than it had when it was using its old ERP system, and the company
has been able to manage this volume with a more efficient organizational
structure. The efficiencies SMP has gained using EnterpriseIQ not only
translate into real benefit for the company, but also for its customers.
"Potential customers are attracted to our real-time
capabilities and the fact that we have an ERP system that touches all
the various disciplines of our organization from quoting through accounts
receivables," explained Christopher Emery, vice president of sales
at SMP. "Our current customers are equally impressed with the way
IQMS supports our goal of 100% on-time delivery."
SMP's customers aren't the only ones who are impressed.
SMP's president, Mark Weishaar, believes the return on investment the
company has seen since installing the system have made the company's organizational
structure not only more efficient, but better poised for long-term growth.
"EnterpriseIQ delivers timely information to the right
people at the right time. And that holds true whether you look at it from
my perspective of overseeing the entire operation, or from that of one
of our associates managing an injection molding machine on the shop floor,"
Weishaar explained. "With EnterpriseIQ, we are all working within
the same data set at the same time. And that's impressive because it not
only gives us more control over our day-to-day operations, but it also
affords us the clarity to see how far into the future we can grow our
business."
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