Acme Alliance Live with Odyssey SaaS
For Immediate Release
Contact: Alexandria Trusov
Email: atrusov@blinfo.com
Phone: 269.465.6207 x 310
ACME ALLIANCE LIVE WITH ODYSSEY SaaS
Key Suppliers Empowered with Information
Bridgman, MI, July 14, 2014 - In early May 2014, Acme Alliance, LLC took their Northbrook, Illinois aluminum die casting operation live with B&L Information System's Odyssey Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) program. Acme Alliance has produced die castings since 1964 and began working on creating a Lean manufacturing environment in 2001.
In keeping with Acme Alliance's commitment to communication integration, Acme�s management committed a core team of four staff members to facilitate the ERP transition and implementation: Mike Anderson (Kaizen Promotion Officer), Dennis Decman (Assistant Controller), Anthony Dizonno (Systems Administrator), and Roy DuSell (Controller). The Acme team trained on Odyssey�s ERP system and consulted with B&L's Frank Roorda to create an Acme-specific business and implementation procedures based on "B&L's 5 Steps to Successful ERP Conversion Plan", as well as created a training plan for both the company and its suppliers.
"ERP implementations are always daunting experiences with hidden surprises. Fortunately for Acme, the 'surprise' elements were mitigated through the expertise of B&L's staff. The B&L team intimately learned Acme's Lean business model, enabling us to make optimal decisions from the very beginning for the best possible results," stated DuSell. "From day one, B&L's staff was not just a resource for us, but true members of the Acme Alliance team. I felt that they showed genuine ownership of our implementation."
Utilizing Odyssey's Shop Floor Manager module to provide
real-time information to Acme's 115 employees, while looping suppliers into the information flow via the Supplier Portal, were key components to continuing Acme's Lean improvement process. Appropriately for an ISO 9001:2008 certified manufacturer whose value stream production system was established to control process flow, reduce waste and improve quality - Acme Alliance began the ERP implementation with the Scrap Control, Materials Inventory, Product Inventory, Financial and
Shop Floor Manager modules of Odyssey. In addition, Odyssey's
Supplier Portal module was rolled out to Acme's key suppliers for optimized supply chain management.
The hands-on training for the suppliers was done by Acme's System Administrator, Anthony Dizonno. Suppliers were taught how to log directly into the Odyssey Supplier Portal for real-time data on Acme's product needs, acknowledgements of goods received, and other supply chain data. Additionally, Acme is creating a video library, similar to B&L's training library, for suppliers to use as both a reference and to quickly train additional staff.
Shop floor training was headed up by Kaizen Promotions Officer, Mike Anderson, of Acme's implementation team. Anderson championed Acme's early adoption of Odyssey's internet browser-based Shop Floor Manager (SFM) to reduce the need for a data interface and increase ease of use among shop floor employees. Overall, the use of Odyssey's SFM significantly increased data accuracy in several key areas, including production quantities and scrap.
"Implementing the Odyssey ERP system gives us the ability to capture and utilize data - including crucial shop floor data - in ways we only used to dream of. I am already impressed with the data we are getting out of the system, and we have only been live for about a month,' noted Anderson. "We are extremely happy with the Odyssey implementation and look forward to growing into more of the Odyssey features in the future."
About B&L Information Systems
B&L Information Systems is a global leader in providing integrated enterprise resource planning (ERP) for metalcasters. For over 35 years, B&L has used their deep understanding of the specific challenges and problems of foundries and die casters to create an ERP solution which matches the way metalcasters operate, making it easier to learn and use. With Odyssey, metalcasters will maximize their resources, minimize costs, and make better decisions faster.
