Aerospace supplier sets up Lean initiative using Infor ERP
By Manufacturing Business Technology Staff -- Manufacturing Business Technology, 5/28/2008 4:39:00 PM
Leach International, a subsidiary ofEsterline Technologies Corp. and a leading manufacturer of power-switching and control components for the aerospace industry, will use Infor ERP SyteLine to manage operations and accelerate the company’s transition to a Lean manufacturing environment.
Based in Buena Park, Calif., Leach International was acquired by Esterline in 2004. Esterline, a long-time user of Infor ERP SyteLine, relies on the software as part of its corporate standardization and lean manufacturing initiatives across its worldwide subsidiaries.
Leach will be the first Esterline Company to benefit from the expanded multisite capabilities and role-based functionality included in Infor ERP SyteLine 8.0. The deployment will help Esterline develop a road map of best practices for the future deployment of Infor ERP SyteLine 8.0 in its other divisions.
“The adoption of lean manufacturing practices will improve our competitive position, and we eagerly anticipate the full implementation of lean philosophies across the organization,” says Mark Thek, president, Leach International. “Through many of the projected productivity gains provided by Infor ERP SyteLine, we will significantly accelerate the timetable of this cultural transformation. That is not an easy task, considering that the previous business practices at Leach were in place for more than 50 years.”
Leach formerly used a proprietary ERP system it developed in-house that was unable to keep pace with the company’s aggressive growth and global expansion. To fully realize its lean manufacturing transformation and manage its growth targets, the manufacturer required a system that could consolidate its disparate data resources and integrate quickly across all divisions and facilities.
“Infor ERP SyteLine has many built-in aerospace and lean manufacturing-focused capabilities that we would have otherwise had to develop ourselves,” says Tim Heer, business process and training coordinator at Leach. “We were pleased to find an ERP provider that can address these requirements. Solutions from other companies would have been economically prohibitive and require extensive customization to deliver the flexibility and capabilities we need.”
