To maintain and strengthen its role as a market leader, Hultafors AB, in close collaboration with Connect Companies and ZeeU, has moved from working in a proprietary IT environment with various subsystems to a new, unified system support based on Jeeves. The implementation has resulted in increased automation and digital information flows that effectively tie together processes, from orders and picking to production and invoicing.
For Hultafors, a modern and accessible IT environment is a crucial success factor for continued growth and competitiveness. Today, the company can focus on value creation and designing and manufacturing some of the world’s best hand tools, while the business has the IT support required to meet high demands at all levels.
Increased digitalization results in more efficient production processes
The IT support that was previously used involved a lot of manual work and was based on various applications, several of which were developed in-house. In the new environment, the system flora has been slimmed down. The integrations are also better and have simplified several work steps.
– If we are to maintain our market-leading position, efficient production is required where manual work is minimized while our flows can be kept together in one and the same system as far as possible. By introducing a new upgraded version of Jeeves at our production units in Hultafors, Nässjö and Hults Bruk, we now have the conditions to streamline production while maintaining world-class quality.
Mårten Larsson, IT Manager at Hultafors Group
Careful mapping of all processes
In Nässjö, Hultafors had previously used Jeeves for its production, but as with other production units, they chose to do a completely new installation of the ERP system, which was also preceded by a feasibility study and a mapping of all processes. This work revealed that the operation had shortcomings in its current support and a great potential for improvement and efficiency. In addition, it was found that reporting and follow-up could be developed within the framework of the project.
– A project of this kind of course requires that you involve the staff in the process itself. It is not possible to succeed if there is no commitment and understanding of the work being done. Here I think that the staff, together with Connect Companies, have succeeded in showing how commitment and knowledge are a strong contributor to enabling the streamlining and simplification of processes and operations, continues Mårten Larsson.
– The entire project has also required a systematic and well-structured approach. If I compare it to other consultants, it feels like Connect Companies and ZeeU have done an extremely good job in that regard. We would never have achieved this without their experience, commitment and knowledge within Jeeves and integration. We now have a significantly stronger platform and a good starting point for further improvement and development of our processes and routines, comments Mårten Larsson, IT Manager at Hultafors Group.
The solution in brief:
• The production sites in Hultafors, Nässjö and Hults Bruk have Jeeves as system support for production and finance.
• Connect Companies’ software CAIE/CCWA and Blue Integrator have been used for implementation and integration (both with internal and external systems).
• The new system support creates a platform for an automated information and process flow, from order capture to delivery and accounting.
• Integration, simplified reporting and introduction of barcodes minimize the number of button presses and the risk of incorrect picking.
• Simplified production reporting to support different parts of the production process (the same product can be reported in, for example, M3, pallet, kilo, box or stick/piece).
• New assignment system simplifies replenishment of raw materials for production.
• Digitized measurement protocols simplify follow-up.
