Case Studies: Manufacturing

SAP software is mission critical to the Missiles and Fire Control unit of global aerospace manufacturer Lockheed Martin, which wanted to significantly reduce the costs of its deployment while improving its performance. Its solution: migrate the SAP infrastructure from Reduced Instruction Set Computing (RISC) platforms running UNIX to the Microsoft® Windows Server® 2003 operating system and Microsoft SQL Server™ 2005 on Intel technologies. The company expects to save up to 41 percent of SAP hardware (server and storage), software, and maintenance costs over the next five years—while exceeding the performance it saw on the RISC-based UNIX solution. That in turn contributes to the company’s business agility and competitiveness, helping it to continue to lead in its highly competitive market.

American Power Conversion (APC) contemplated major increases in its use of Siebel software—including consolidation of separate instances into a single, global database and expanding its use to include the real-time needs of its call center. That required even more performance than it was getting from Microsoft® SQL Server™ 2000 database software. So, the company upgraded to SQL Server 2005 Enterprise Edition (64-bit). Siebel transaction response times are 100 percent faster; the call center responds more quickly and cost-effectively to customers; the solution will scale to support a 300 percent increase in the current 3,000-user base; and availability is “rock-solid” according to the company. APC gets all this and more for less than half of the estimated cost of an Oracle-based solution, saving the company U.S.$800,000.

BlackHawk is a manufacturer and distributor of over 2,500 high-end military, law enforcement, and outdoor gear products. Rapid growth and global expansion, including several acquisitions, left BlackHawk with distributed operations and a mix of disparate business systems. BlackHawk needed an integrated solution that was robust enough to meet growing business demands and considered several software packages, including those from SAP and Oracle. BlackHawk chose Microsoft Dynamics™ AX for its flexibility, scalability, low total cost of ownership, and because it worked with the company’s existing IT investments. After implementing Microsoft Dynamics AX with help from Microsoft® Gold Certified Partner Vis.align, BlackHawk enjoys greater visibility into sales and supply chain data, closes its monthly financial reports more easily, and spends less time and money on IT.

Canadian General-Tower (CGT) is a Canadian auto parts manufacturer that produces vinyl fabric and interior trim products for approximately 85 percent of cars and light trucks produced in North America. CGT’s business and supply chain management systems weren’t integrated and needed expensive maintenance. Today, with a new Microsoft Dynamics™ AX business management solution, CGT is on track to save up to CDN$850,000 (U.S.$750,000) compared to the cost of continuing to operate its old system. In addition, the purchasing department is saving hundreds of hours of labor formerly spent reconciling invoices and purchasing records. CGT can also now use vendor pricing history and respond to changing markets for key supplies. In the near future, CGT expects to integrate manufacturing operations into Microsoft Dynamics AX and gain a complete supply chain management system for even greater efficiency and lower costs.

Oldcastle Precast is a U.S.$800 million manufacturer of precast concrete products. It has 70 plants across the United States and Canada with more than 3,500 employees. Having successfully implemented Microsoft® Business Solutions–Axapta® 2.5, now part of Microsoft Dynamics™, in 2001 to streamline and automate its core business processes, it has decided to take advantage of the new capabilities in Microsoft Dynamics AX 4.0. This upgrade will help Oldcastle put in place a platform to future–proof its ambitious expansion plans, achieving new business productivities without increasing support costs. It is working with Microsoft and Microsoft Certified Partner Tectura, to take part in the Microsoft Dynamics AX Technology Adoption Program (TAP) for its upgrade to version 4.0. Oldcastle plans an official release date of February 2007, with a technology rollout to 800 users.

Time means everything to pharmaceutical companies—speeding the drug development cycle enables fast time-to-market and a more competitive business. Creating a more efficient, effective development cycle is a priority for Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research (NIBR). But the disconnected infrastructure used to manage research projects slowed decision making, such as which projects to prioritize, because of the time required to aggregate project data. NIBR teamed with Microsoft to build the Decision Support Environment—a solution that consolidates project data and associated documentation to a single system. The solution, which was built initially on Microsoft® Windows® SharePoint® Services 3.0 and soon will run on Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, supports fast information access and better business insight, and the solution will help NIBR speed the drug discovery life cycle.