Reliable and transparent information about global processes
Confidex Oy is a rapidly growing company located in Tampere, Finland with unique know-how in designing and manufacturing RFID technology. The company has offices in Europe, North America and China and retailers in over 30 countries. International growth sets great demands on the enterprise resource planning.
Confidex is the global market leader in manufacturing radio frequency identification tags (RFID) for tickets and returnable transit items. It specialises in industrial RFID applications for demanding environments. Compared to traditional barcode markings, one of the benefits of RFID is that no visual connection between the reader and the tag is needed. Many tags can be read immediately from up to tens of metres away. RFID tags have become more common in public transport tickets and in returnable transit items in retail, postal and the automotive industry.
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”There are infinite possibilities for applications. RFID can be used to mark, for example, property or the origin of designer products,” explains Confidex’s CEO Timo Lindström.
Challenges of a global operational environment
Confidex operates on a global level. The company’s head office and product development are in Tampere, Finland, manufacturing is in China whereas a global network of distributors takes care of sales.
”An operational environment like this sets great demands on our enterprise resource planning and reporting,” says Lindström.
The broad geographical distribution of Confidex and the resulting communication between different operations in the company, as well as the need to enhance production management were the impetus for seeking a new enterprise planning system (ERP). Previously, the production management was done solely in China because the former system could not be used remotely from Finland. Effective tools in production planning and management could solve these bottlenecks in
production. “There was room for improvement in reporting as well. That is why we began looking for a system that would solve these challenges posed by production planning and having multiple offices,” Confidex’s Director of Finance Rainer Antila describes the project’s background.
Visual tool gives the big picture
The solution was found in Tieto’s Lean System® ERP together with Process Balancer, a visual tool for production planning.
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“With the help of Lean System we can now do everything in material and production flows, such as sales, deliveries, billing, production planning, warehouse management and material management”, Antila sums up.
Lean System is a well scalable system that is suitable for both start-up companies and big international operators alike. Process Balancer, on the other hand, is a great tool for production planning. It turns numerical data into user-friendly visual format.
Reliable and transparent information
In implementing the ERP, the goals were set in improving efficiency of operations by making it easier to collect work data and storage events, and by enhancing production planning, material management and the load on production resources. More transparency was also needed between operations in Finland and China.
” We can already now see clear benefits. We have a system that can be used in two places simultaneously and we can see the situation in real time. This makes everybody’s life easier. A common system enables us to enter data only once. This reduces the number of errors significantly,” Antila says.
”From the point of view of management, it is essential that we get reliable data from all processes in the operation,” Lindström states.
Rapid implementation
The implementation of Confidex’s Lean System ERP took only six months.
”The implementation was really sharp, the project manager did a great job,” Antila explains.
”Another positive thing was that every application in the system works according to the same logic and is therefore easy to learn. This made the implementation easier, as we could do the user training in China ourselves.”
Tieto has striven to make the implementation of a new ERP system as easy for the customer as possible. The project model is a readymade package with carefully planned stages. The system is delivered to the customer as highly pre-parametered as possible. That saves both time and money for the customer.
Challenge
The broad geographical distribution of Confidex and the resulting communication between different operations in the company set great demands on the enterprise resource planning and reporting. Previously, the production management was done solely in China because the former system could not be used remotely from Finland. Effective tools in production planning and management could solve these bottlenecks in production as well as improve reporting.
Solution
The solution was found in Tieto’s Lean System® ERP. Lean System manages now all material and production flows, such as sales, deliveries, billing, production planning, warehouse management and material management. The solution is complemented by Process Balancer, which turns numerical data into user-friendly visual format.
Results
Efficiency of operations has improved thanks to better production planning and material management. It is now also easier to collect work data and storage events.
ERP system can be used in two places simultaneously. With the help of the system real time information about the processes is available for both parties which increases reliability and transparency of information. A common system enables to enter data only once thus reducing the number of errors significantly.
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