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Lean Manufacturing Initiatives Realize Significant Operational Benefits for OPW Fueling Components
Glovia International, a subsidiary of Fujitsu and provider of extended ERP solutions for engineer-to-order and high volume manufacturers, announced that OPW Fueling Components is achieving significant operational benefits from continuous Lean Manufacturing strategies supported by Glovia's extended ERP solution, glovia.com.
OPW is a global leader in fueling solutions, offering a complete line of fueling products and services. The company has been pursuing the Lean Manufacturing strategies of continuous improvement, eliminating waste and increasing customer responsiveness since the mid-1990s when it began using Glovia's ERP solution. OPW realized that an ERP system would help streamline their operations by providing the information needed to control processes, coordinate enterprise-wide activities, monitor quality and measure improvements as effectively as possible.
In regards specifically to OPW's lean initiatives, glovia.com is currently used to record costs and material usage information, which is critical in measuring the effectiveness of their improvements. OPW's production is pull-driven, with Kanban directing the flow of work on the plant floor from one operation to another. "Glovia's ERP solution provides us a means of making sure what's supposed to be happening in regards to our lean execution is actually happening down on the plant floor. It makes sure all the 'T's get crossed and all the 'I's get dotted," stated Tom Ciepichal, vice president of operations for OPW.
This combination of lean controls automatically synched with transactions in glovia.com have significantly reduced OPW's transactional costs. "We are moving towards a paperless transaction process which will continue to decrease our transaction costs, reduce a significant amount of time and further improve our cycle time, which is critical in responding to our customers," continued Ciepichal. "When you look at the course of these lean initiatives, we have seen a 79% reduction in cycle time from when we first started with lean to where we are now."
Looking Ahead
OPW is now in the process of migrating to the current version of glovia.com to further support their lean strategies and company operations. The new solution puts OPW even closer to their suppliers and customers by providing enhanced bar code technology and improving the performance and visibility of complex supply chains, like OPW's, that span multiple products and production facilities. "We reviewed 20 or so other solutions and felt that Glovia's was the strongest and would provide us the best results," concluded Ciepichal.
The current version also offers a consignment inventory function that provides Kanban-based replenishment with OPW's suppliers without having to create multiple purchase orders. Bar-coding integration with glovia.com starts the backflushing of material use and labor costs so that when OPW ships finished product, the backflushing, paperless invoicing and payment process with suppliers all begin.
"OPW is an excellent example of how an ERP solution can support Lean Manufacturing initiatives and the lean functionality will be enhanced with their migration to the current version of glovia.com," stated Yuji Nakasu, president and CEO for Glovia International. "OPW's decision to migrate is a testament to the value they have already realized utilizing the solution as well as the quality and depth of functionality the current version offers. OPW will now have a single, integrated extended ERP solution to manage all aspects of their business."
About OPW Fueling Components
OPW is a global leader in fueling solutions, offering the most complete line of fueling products and services to major oil companies, petroleum jobbers, convenience stores, hypermarkets, grocery chains and commercial and private fueling operations on a worldwide scale. OPW sales and manufacturing operations span the globe, each one strategically positioned in geographic locations designed to provide optimum product availability, speed of delivery and local representation. The company's world headquarters is located in Cincinnati, Ohio USA. This 250,000 square-foot complex is the industry's largest and most advanced research, product development and manufacturing facility. With 14 field sales offices and five manufacturing facilities in the United States, other locations include: United Kingdom, Philippines, India, Italy, Czech Republic, Mexico, Brazil, China, Poland, The Netherlands, and Taiwan. For more information please visit www.opw-fc.com. 09.12.2004, Glovia International
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