An effective ERP project of EM Electric in high voltage panel production
August 2009
EM Electric, established in 1999 as a firm conducting high-voltage cable assembly contracting works, and shifted to manufacturing along with the 2001 crisis, is such a firm managed with over years experience, and a broad vision, though its young age.
Sadettin Erdeniz, the General Manager, and Ece Erdeniz, the General Coordinator of EM Electric, which has rapidly grown since it was established, and has been involved in important achievements both at home and abroad, told us EM Electric since its establishment up to present, their ERP Projects, and secrets of their success.
IAS:How was EM Electric established?
Ece Erdeniz:
EM Electric was established in 1999 as contracting firm dealing with high-voltage cable assembly works. Cessation of the investments due to 2001 crisis led to decrease in contracting works, and then we gradually shifted to production. Our general manager Sadettin Erdeniz has devoted the whole of his 30-year business life to high voltage. He is an electrical Engineer; he has served as senior manager at Demirer Cable for a long time, and previously, as production manager at Siemens.
High voltage is such a sensitive sector that not anybody can enter in. A power panel has a great importance in a project. Such problems as cancellation of an entire project due to entrance of water in the panel, and payment of great penalties by big firms may be encountered. Sadettin Erdeniz has started out to be the best performer of that work with his past experiences. I can say that there is not more quality producer than EM in high voltage panel production at the moment.
After all, we are high voltage cable accessories producer firm. We export 90 percent of our production. Our export countries are primarily the United Arab Emirates, and Switzerland, Germany, Spain, England, Italy and France. Our customers are very big cable and accessories manufacturers.
The most important 3 criteria of our enterprise are: "Quality, price and delivery period." If one of the lack others, the work stops. What we produce is a forgotten product. Consider a great cable project; the most costly thing is the cable. The guys lay the cable, but once the turn comes to the case, no case in view. The whole project waits for a panel, and cannot be energized without panel. So the works are always in a hurry.
IAS:Which requirements directed you to ERP?
Ece Erdeniz:
You hire personnel, you make production, there are materials incoming and outgoing, you make shipment, invoicing... Ok, something is going, but in a such uncontrolled way. I remember that export was stopped in the middle of the night due to a missing bar. We don't have product stock, but semi-finished product stock, and it is very important. Any missing therein stops the entire of our shipment. Shifting in shipment means the works get in a mess. We suffered such events many times. Preventing such confusion was one of the basic objectives of beginning the ERP project.
We thought that, if expect a performance, we should ensure the control of the personnel; gather them under the same roof in the first place. That was what we had first done. When you move to a bigger site, the costs increase too. There is just one way to decrease the costs, which is increasing the productivity. You will produce a bigger quantity of products, you will decrease the workmanship involved in the product. Productivity is increased in two ways. Expanding the machinery, and ensuring order and control in processes. ERP is essential for that.
After expanding the machinery, we considered that we needed such a software that will enable analyzes and reporting of the obtained information, decrease the faults in production, and bought and ERP software. We created product trees at that time. We studied a lot together on our processes. Our production processes are too complex, and our products are variant. We produce everything concerning our product ourselves. We buy the raw material, process it, on the other side, the stainless parts come in, all these are processed in different ways, the case and copper parts penetrating in the case are assembled, packaging and chest are also on our part. But our first ERP was not adequate. We had serious difficulties in that regard.
IAS:What problems did you encounter with your first ERP software? What were the reasons directing you to change?
Ece Erdeniz:
As I have just mentioned, our production processes are too complex, and though we have 8 basic products, we obtain about 4 thousand product types including the variations. Of course we saw that clearly after CANIAS. We had decided on the first software in an urgent way, without investigating so much. We saw that there was no variant structure. Moreover, the system couldn't proceed due to communication lack. We even had difficulty in accessing the consultant. The program was giving to many errors. While the work was in such circumstances, one's resistance was down, loosed his motivation.
Fortunately, there was not any accounting for that, only for production, which is MRP I, storage and purchase. We understood they would not help with us, and began to search for a software. We found IAS from the internet. When you write ERP, IAS directly appears. Your name was mentioned in many articles. We investigated and searched. Also we asked your references. We asked your German customer, EMKA, about CANIAS ERP. They are one of our suppliers. We also work with Sağlam Metal among your customers. We asked them, either. While we received good reference from everyone, we started contact. We obtained demo, sale interviews were commenced. We don't prolong the matters so much. If we consider that something will be useful for us, and receive signals of reliability from the counter party, we decide instantly.
IAS:What were the reasons for preferring CANIAS ERP?
Ece Erdeniz:
It was important for us that the inter-department integration is fast. Reports of CANIAS were simple and understandable. It was also very important for us that the software firm is a professional firm. Due to the experience we have previously suffered, we wanted to work with a corporate and professional firm. The interfaces were also too simple.
IAS:The most frightening point in ERP projects is transition to live usage. We know that you have switched to live usage within such a very short time as 4 months. What was the reason of such rapid switching?
Ece Erdeniz:
Switching to live usage was performed within a such a short time as 4 months in total. Of course the first program we have used were advantageous in terms of teaching us the ERP system. One of the rapid switching reasons of the firm is that the personnel were qualified, and the management believed in the benefits of ERP.
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