 |
 |
|||||||||||
|
|
|
||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|||||||||
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
|
|
||||||||
|
World Kitchen | |
|
Overview "Our executives challenged us to find a way to get new products to market faster. We found that the long cycle time for creating new SAP Material Master Records was a roadblock to reaching this goal. Optura Material Data Management (MDM) was a packaged solution that helped us remove that roadblock and directly benefit the bottom line." -- Randy Peterson, Director of Application Services. World Kitchen, Inc. manufactures and markets kitchen housewares products worldwide, for use in preparing, cooking, serving and storing food. Its products have led the housewares industry since the introduction of PYREX bakeware in 1915, and its brands today are regarded as the most widely recognized, owned and preferred in homes around the globe. World Kitchen's powerhouse of well-known consumer brands includes:
Challenge Many of the World Kitchen products used in our home's leverage trends and fashion that makes getting them to market faster a critical factor for company success. New products begin their journey from idea to shelf with a request from Marketing which then moves through various steps including design, prototyping, purchasing, etc. Along the way there are several approvals and several points to capture information. World Kitchen implemented SAP R/3 in 1999 and began collecting information and creating material masters on a decentralized basis. Knowledge workers were identified and assigned material master set up authority by product group. Requests were made via MS Word documents and faxed or routed as needed to collect data and gain approval. Materials were established but cycle times ran around 90 days from initial request to final creation. Moreover because there was no central control, results were inconsistent and information was not collected which could serve as a basis for process improvement. In short, the process did not lend itself to management or continual improvement. In 2001, World Kitchen's senior management began to focus on addressing serious operational changes to make the company more competitive. One of the critical focus areas emphasized was dramatically improving time to market. WKI's market niche demands products that are responsive to market changes in style and color. Getting a new product to market fast can mean capturing a quick turn in consumer mentality and execution speed has a real impact on the bottom line. Several focus groups were established to identify the barriers to getting product to market. With up to a 90-day lead time, setting up new products in SAP turned out to be a real barrier. "We had some people focused on this issue with great backgrounds in process reengineering and they began to see workflow as a solid option", said Randy Peterson, Director of Application Services at World Kitchen. Peterson continued. "We had viewed SAP workflow as the 'golden nugget' we needed to get more out of our SAP processes, but we had limited experience. We needed a way to get our feet wet while attacking this key business process". Optura Solution World Kitchen got to know Optura the way many other customers do - through ASUG. ASUG, the Americas SAP Users Group, is a great forum for exchange of information and Optura is a prominent participant at the national and regional levels. Peterson explained, "We got a chance to see a demonstration of a product for creating new SAP Materials - Optura's Material Data Management™. We could see that this packaged product would create the centralized control and discipline we needed to rein in our cycle time. While we considered in-house development, our experience with SAP Workflow showed that there were alot of technical nuances and design considerations that we really didn't have time to learn. Most importantly, it was much easier for our users to understand and buy-into a solution when they could see it demonstrated interactively. If we had done it in-house, the requirements and analysis steps would have been very time consuming". WKI found Optura's product an enabling tool in meeting IT goals because the product enforces a centralized control discipline. Requestors, such as Marketing, submit requests for new materials via an online form called an MCR (Material Change Request document). This document is then routed via workflow to approvers and other knowledge workers who add necessary data before the final SAP Materials are created. All of this is visible and under central control. The central team can view requests and perform quality checks if needed. They can also approve the final material before it is finally activated for use by manufacturing, procurement, etc. And finally, everything is configurable and can be tailored to the needs of each customer's requirements. Peterson explained how they selected Optura. "We gave Optura a hard look. We talked to analysts, checked references, and found Optura well positioned with a solid track record of delivering results. Once we had done our due diligence, we moved straight ahead to write up the appropriation". Making it Happen After completion of the business arrangements, Optura's Client Services Manager (CSM) began coordinating with World Kitchen's Project manager to detail staffing, timeline, and tasks. By using Optura's Forward Motion™ methodology, the project became a perfect mesh of philosophies. Peterson explained, "Optura's ideas of control and management were in total synch with ours. We believe in control and planning. Optura's disciplined approach was welcomed at World Kitchen". One of the key challenges in this project was migrating from a decentralized process with little accountability to a centralized process with closed loop statistics and close management. As with any change, this created challenges as staff began to understand the impact of the changes and increased accountability. Peterson elaborates, "Optura's Blueprint documents were very useful in creating a visual image of what the new process would look like. While we have our change management challenges, this approach was very useful in managing this change." Peterson explained the outcome of the project. "The project came in more or less on time and on budget. We had to work hard to get the centralized control and accountability in place, but we made it. One of our key success factors was requiring each user to be fully trained and certified in the operation of the new tool before they could obtain system access. This was a tactic that really paid off when we went live." Bottom Line Peterson explained, "Yes we had some push back as the new discipline was digested, but we succeeded and the data speaks for itself. We reduced our cycle time from 90 days to about 22 days with more control than we ever had before." Another key benefit of MDM is that is provides a complete platform for continuous process improvement. Peterson explains, "After implementation we were able to really get a handle on our processing metrics. The tool comes with reports, which isolate bottlenecks and help us focus on continuous process improvement. We really see our initial implementation as the start of our continuing to refine and improve our results. We expect to build on what we have done here in the future. The Optura product also played a role in helping us reduce our overall costs of operating this business process by about 50%." "We were able to establish a controlled information system for managing this process where we used to have inconsistencies and delays. This was quite an accomplishment", said Peterson. He went on, "Now, we have a paperless information system and a platform to build upon. We have been impressed enough with the Optura solution that we licensed a second product - Vendor Invoice Management™ - to help us improve our Accounts Payable function. This product was easy to justify based on what we have accomplished with MDM". |
|
|
* Case Studies are in the Adobe PDF format, which requires
Adobe Reader.
|
|
|
© 2005 Optura. All Rights Reserved. | 207-363-1101 - More Information | Terms of Use and Privacy | |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
