Advance Chemicals Case Study
Company Profile
Advance Chemicals is a company with an ancestry stretching back 75+ years. The name and the structure have altered over time but their experience and stability are two of its primary market differentiators. Advance Chemicals is a manufacturer of cleaning, maintenance and specialty chemicals to a wide range of industries including manufacturing, textiles, food, automotive and hospitality to name a few.
At their factory in Altona (a Melbourne suburb), Advance Chemicals currently manufacture over 1200 products, sold to over 1000 customers in Australia, New Zealand, China, Fiji and Korea.
Their annual growth rate is expected to double over the next four years as they achieved ISO Quality and Environmental accreditations which have opened up significant growth opportunities.
Business Situation
The anticipated growth led Advance Chemicals to re-examine their existing ERP system supplied by 2Clix. As a result they discovered that fundamental business issues and requirements were not being catered for and therefore they needed a solution that could meet their needs.
System Issues
The new solution needed to be able to manage the following:
• Lot and batch tracing for a new product range
• A stable, meaningful Bill of Materials (BOM) reflecting product quality on a repeatable basis
• Cost control at the product BOM and customer level
• Production planning and scheduling
• Capacity planning
• Overall integration with their existing systems
Hands-on Systems Solution
Advance Chemicals initially purchased Microsoft Dynamics for 7 concurrent users and installed it on a Windows Small Business Server including Microsoft SQL 2005 and Microsoft Exchange.
Adrian Borsi, Operations Manager, said “We immediately benefited from the transparent integration of our systems, the common look and feel, ease of use and move away from spreadsheets and other islands of information.”
“Fundamental to the whole process was the financial, manufacturing and distribution expertise we gleaned from Hands-on Systems staff both during and after the implementation. Hands-on System staff have implemented hundreds of similar systems and faced and solved our type of problems many times before – this general experience goes beyond just the software and was invaluable in our environment and provided productivity gains in particular which we would otherwise have never even been aware of.”
Benefits of Dynamics Solution
• $300,000 per annum in staff costs – the streamlining of processes in production and warehouse coupled with the Microsoft Dynamics solution has resulted in reducing the workforce by 4 people.
• Cost savings of up to $1,000 per month – sending out quotes, invoices, and statements via email in PDF format saved a minimum of $300 per month in stamps and stationary.
• Through proper, accurate costing, a sales commission scheme has been implemented based on margin per sale
• Significant reduction in inventory of raw materials and finished goods – the system gives greater control over inventory levels.
• Improved document control - All correspondence relating to customers, vendors and inventory is stored within Dynamics so personnel save time finding the information they need.
• Warehouse efficiencies - Production orders carry bin locations for all raw materials
• Integrated payroll
Adrian reiterates the positive outcomes. “We can trace raw materials to finished goods to customer receipts and any point in between. This satisfies our veterinarian requirements. Further, we now have full cost roll up (from BOMs and Routings) for every product - we therefore know our profitability for each product for every sale regardless of how much costs may have changed. We can now schedule and plan productions within our capacity limit and provide sensible, accurate supply promise dates to our customers.”
For More Information
Contact us for more information by emailing us at sales@handson.com.au or calling us on 1300 197 690
This case study is for information purposes only. Hands on Systems makes no warranties, express or implied, in this summary.