Computerworld Philippines Staff
May 13, 2010

Uratex, a family-owned Philippine-based business which specializes in foam, plastic and metal products for the automotive, industrial and domestic consumer markets, announced that they have gained significant improvements in profitability and operational efficiency since partnering with IBM and Bayantrade. Their collaboration was to implement an SAP Business All-in-One solution on an IBM System x server, leveraging the business benefits of IBM System Storage and the operational strengths of IBM DB2 software. The ERP solutions initially ran at just two sites but grew eventually across the entire organization, composed of 11 manufacturing sites with around 1,600 employees.

Each Uratex manufacturing site had its own business system, and even between locations there were difficulties in exchanging information. Sales order information would frequently be re-keyed several times into different production systems, and overproduction and overstocking inventories was common. In addition, each unit operated its own general ledger, inventory, point of sale and order handling system.

With the SAP solution in place, finished goods inventory was cut by 90 percent from two months to five days, releasing cash to the business. The integrated order-to-cash process ensured that production volumes match sales orders, reducing waste and increasing efficiency.

Uratex chose SAP Business All-in-One largely for the embedded business practices, and chose to run it on IBM technology because of its excellent reputation for quality and reliability.

The SAP software runs on an IBM System x3650 server, more than capable of handling the workload of the entire Uratex group, as it can be upgraded to meet the rising workload via disk capacity increase, offering a stable and reliable solution for continuing operations. Uratex selected IBM DB2 to provide information management as it offers easy database integration with SAP applications and easy database administration, which will help reduce costs and boost efficiency.

“Before, we literally had tens of thousands of products, and a large order might be manufactured across several sites. Multiple data entry was a waste of effort and it tended to introduce errors, so sites would often over-produce ‘just to be on the safe side,’ so to speak,” said Peachy Medina, Managing Director of Uratex.

Medina relates there was no embedded process control. For example, when an under-pressure sales person could not find the correct product code, it was quicker simply to enter a new code in the relevant field in order to process the order. Or again, if a customer returned an order, it was easier to generate a credit and sort out whether the goods had actually arrived at a later stage. “In both cases, although we offered speedy and helpful customer service, our lack of discipline made it very hard to identify true profitability and improve our business processes,” Medina explained.

According to Medina, the solution has immediately resulted in better process controls and a simpler way of working that makes it easier for the company to build the business.

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