ABOUT THE COMPANY

YAWAL S.A. is one of the leading suppliers of architectural aluminium profile systems in Poland. It owes its market-leading position to 30 years of experience and the development of a wide range of innovative solutions. The company produces energy-saving structures by constructing windows, doors, facades, partition and curtain walls, winter gardens, skylights, balustrades and sun visors.

THE NEED FOR CHANGE

For 20 years, YAWAL has been using the IFS Apps 99 version. The system though had become very outdated, with an archaic, not very intuitive interface. The system handled basic company processes, however, there came a need to change and grow with external applications that facilitate our users’ work and the expanding functionality required for our business to grow.

IFS Apps 99 was unable to support business processes in today’s reality. External development work and interfaces also significantly limited flexibility making changes to the application configuration. Such a model could not be further sustained, hence YAWAL decided to update its existing systems.

IMPLEMENTATION

The implementation was not carried out as an upgrade of the solution but as a complete re-implementation. New processes have emerged in our business and we needed to adapt to the requirements of the third decade of the 21st century. YAWAL has increased production efficiency thanks to IFS APPLICATIONS 9.

As part of the agreement, not only the way of handling the application implementation was changed, but also the implementation process. Similarly, as in the previous implementation in 1999, the focus was on the benefits we could achieve and expect, what the company is supposed to gain thanks to the new implementation, and not on “patching” the shortcomings of the old version.

As a result of the implementation, we can now support our entire organization, all of its processes and in one coherent tool, with easy access to data in a modern interface. The company organized and simplified the processes and improved the quality of system data. A task-based work system was launched in the production and warehouse with each employee knowing exactly what tasks are to be performed, in what order and at what time, and they report their execution of these tasks on an ongoing basis. – Ireneusz Kłobus, Project Manager.

Data between IFS Apps 9 and two large external functionalities that could not be handled in the ERP application (spatial structure design system and the software for the maintenance-free fully automated warehouse) have been bi-directionally integrated. Additionally, a decision was made to relieve the IT department of server load by placing the entire IFS Apps 9 installation in the POLCOM cloud infrastructure.

YAWAL operates a complicated production model, including the implementation of the entire production process in direct connection with the customer’s order. Additionally, production planning is complicated by a very wide range of colours. The individual colours are unique to each customer and cannot be sold to other customers. Therefore, it was decided to use the customer-order configuration module (CTO), along with multi-level demand planning in production orders (DOP).

Particular attention was paid to the proper organization of the workflow between individual cooperating departments. All of this was done to keep to those agreed upon registration orders, delivery dates communicated to customers, for which the Multi-Level Availability Planning (ATO) functionality and tool were used.

The operation of the production module has been remodelled, focusing not only on general material accounting but also on resource and personnel planning. We developed and launched a planning model for all production departments in the company. Statistical Planning and MRP methods are used consciously and effectively.

All production processes are reported on an ongoing basis using wireless terminals with barcode readers. This reporting is done by employees of various production departments, directly by people working on the production line at the start and end of individual processes. The system automatically settles raw materials, working time of individual shifts, allows for automatic printing of labels and also for marking products when they leave the production.

MODULES IMPLEMENTED

• IFS Finance and Accounting
• IFS HR and Payroll
• IFS Distribution
• IFS Production

BENEFITS

• Eliminated manual reporting
• Support in planning and settling employees’ working time
• Elimination of a large number of auxiliary operations carried out in production offices and not directly on the line
• Support and implementation of company control procedures
• Implementation of external cooperation in the course of the production
• Simplification of commercial procedures, including concluding trade contracts, acquiring trade and commercial opportunities, offers, acquiring new customers
• Optimized work flow management through calendars and integration with the Outlook calendar
• Simplified mailing, access to the history of client acquisition, commercial correspondence and management and distribution of commercial documentation
• Support for quick order processing
• Implementation and automation of tasks for warehouse employees in the WMS system
• Streamlined the handling of purchase requirements