Industry-Specific ERP Helps Gibraltar Industries Maximize Asset Utilization

Generating Higher Revenues with Fewer Plants
A few years ago, Gibraltar Industries used a variety of outdated custom and off-the-shelf manufacturing systems within its three plants. Then, management decided that it was important to get the three different sites to agree on a single way of running the business and integrate all of its business operations on a single enterprise resource planning (ERP) software platform. Gibraltar selected AXIOM® Enterprise Resource Management software from AXIS, a Consona ERP solution, which is built from the ground up to support the unique operational requirements of the metals industry.

The move to a common ERP system in 2005 enabled the group to combine and right-size the sales, accounting, purchasing, and planning functions. The software tracks every aspect of the group’s operations from receiving through shipping. “Due to excess capacity, the group consolidated to a two division structure in 2007. We were able to meet our customer’s needs with 75 percent of the staff of the previous three division structure,” said Matt Jacobs, manager of business processes for Gibraltar Industries. “AXIOM helped us manage our internal and external resources more efficiently to meet our customers’ quality and delivery requirements despite operating with one less plant.”

Gibraltar’s Processed Metal Products group includes flat-rolled products operations and non-ferrous metal powders and provides value-added processing, such as cold rolling, annealing, temper rolling and slitting, to produce flat rolled products for the automotive industry and other applications.

Transferring Data Between Multiple Systems
Previously, one of Processed Metal Products group’s three plants used custom-developed software that primarily handled manufacturing. This software package had been developed by an employee, and management was concerned that it would be very difficult to support or upgrade the software if the employee were to leave. The other two plants used an outdated off-the-shelf work order system.

Using multiple systems to run these plants created the need to maintain all of these systems and transfer information between systems. It also meant that most reports were outdated at the time they were printed because information had not yet been transferred. These systems also were not capable of meeting all of the specific quality reporting requirements of the flat rolling business, so it was necessary to use handwritten forms and spreadsheets to manage much of this information.

Moving to an Integrated Platform
“We needed to bring the entire group onto a single, integrated platform,” Jacobs said. Gibraltar hired a consultant with ERP software expertise to assist in the selection process. The consultant narrowed the choices down to two of the leading general-purpose ERP packages and AXIOM ERP. “Our users had a strong preference for AXIOM ERP because it is designed specially for the needs of the metals industry,” Jacobs said.

“The people at the plant using the custom software were happy because it had been developed specifically to address their needs.”

“Because AXIOM ERP was designed for the metals industry, it closely mirrors the custom software, particularly in the way that parts and routings are designed,” Jacobs said. “AXIOM ERP handles a wide range of characteristics that are unique to the metal industry. For example, when you slit a coil into multiple strips, the identification of each strip with the original coil is maintained. Also, you can put batches of material from different work orders into common operations, while maintaining their individual identity and associating them with the common process.”

The implementation process began with getting representatives from all three plants to meet together and agree on a single way of running the business. Separation of duties was a major challenge since the new system needed to be compliant with the Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) Act. The next step was documenting these processes and training everyone on the new system. All of the legacy and technical information was transferred into the new systems. Gibraltar interfaced the AXIOM Material Tracking and Control module with its level-II machine control systems to simplify the set-up process for operators, while reducing data errors and maximizing output.

The group uses all of the core AXIS modules to run its entire business. Every part now has a number and bill of materials. Also, Gibraltar runs MRP daily to evaluate demand for the group’s products, create work orders for what needs to be built, and purchase requirements for what needs to be bought. AXIOM ERP captures all of the information involved in the group’s business into one system that can be used for reporting and decision making.

Consolidating Business, Increasing Revenuess
Operating from a single, integrated system made it very easy to reduce administrative expenses by combining and right-sizing the sales, accounting, purchasing and planning functions in a single site. This capability helped to increase inventory accuracy from 85 percent to 98 percent. The software made it possible to implement a single set of business processes to achieve SOX compliance. It soon became apparent that higher levels of integration provided by the new software could be leveraged to further improve efficiency by consolidating the company’s three plants into two.

Not long after the plants were consolidated, the group experienced an upsurge in business that strained the newly-downsized facilities. “At one point, 500 work orders were lined up in front of the rolling mills,” Jacobs said. “In the past, it would have been extremely difficult to identify which orders should be given priority and what adjustments should be made to meet customer demand.

“Having already implemented AXIOM ERP, we used the capacity requirements planning module as our guide. Each time we ran ERP, the capacity requirements planning module showed us how our work centers were loaded. It was easy to see where we lacked capacity. This made it much easier to make decisions, such as working overtime, outsourcing some work and even turning down orders if they were not profitable.” In just a couple of months, managers had completely corrected the situation and were back to exceeding customers’ delivery time expectations.

“We are now capable of shipping more product and generating higher revenues with 25 percent fewer people and 33 percent less administrative staff than at the time we first installed AXIOM ERP,” Jacobs concluded. “AXIS has worked closely with us over the years; even upgrading their software in response to our requests. All in all, the implementation of AXIOM software has played a key role in our ability to improve the efficiency of our operations to compete in the global economy.”

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