Manufacturer Streamlines Manufacturing Processes with a Flexible, Integrated Solution

Microsoft Dynamics Customer Solution Case Study

Overview “We needed a strong ERP system right out of the Country or Region: United States box. Microsoft Great Plains was that solution.” Industry: Manufacturing Mark Sebben, Chief Financial Officer, Hansen Technologies Corporation Customer Profile Headquartered in Burr Ridge, Illinois, Hansen Technologies is a global leader in the design and manufacture of large industrial and commercial refrigeration Hansen Technologies, a leading designer and manufacturer of system components. large refrigeration system components, has built its reputation Business Situation on responsive service, expert technical support, and innovative Hansen’s inefficient business and manufacturing systems threatened its products. With increasing customer demand and projections for ability to keep up with increased more growth, the company’s proprietary business and customer demand. manufacturing systems could not keep up with the increase in Solution order volume. Unwilling to compromise on its commitment to Hansen implemented Microsoft® Business Solutions–Great Plains® to help respond quickly to customers with urgent repair demands, streamline manufacturing processes, Hansen was determined to find a more flexible, integrated increase productivity, and improve customer satisfaction. solution. Working closely with Microsoft® Gold Certified Partner TECTURA, the company chose Microsoft Business Solutions– Benefits ® ™  Streamlined order processing with on- Great Plains (now part of Microsoft Dynamics )to help reduce time shipments up 15 percent costs and streamline manufacturing processes. The benefits  Increased productivity through shared information include more accurate production planning, faster order  More accurate production planning processing, improved customer satisfaction, and the ability to  Improved customer satisfaction  Reduced costs for system changes by make cost-effective system modifications in response to 90 percent changing business needs. “Hansen had the Situation system contained a considerable amount of In the world of commercial and industrial data, but it was difficult for managers to pieces for a more refrigeration systems, responding quickly to retrieve it in a usable format. To avoid efficient business a customer emergency can prevent the costly customizations to the system, loss of thousands of dollars’ worth of managers would have to import the data process already in perishable product. Hansen Technologies, into Microsoft® Excel and spend time place. The missing link a leading designer and manufacturer of manipulating it for their specific purposes. large refrigeration system components, has “The ability to get information out of the was the technology.” built its reputation on responsive customer system was limited because of the data Phil Marotta, Implementation Team Leader, service, expert technical support, and structure,” says Phil Marotta, TECTURA innovative products—helping customers implementation team leader for TECTURA, get back up and running before an the Microsoft Gold Certified Partner emergency becomes a complete disaster. engaged to help Hansen resolve its business and technology challenges. “If Superior customer service extends to you are spending all this time entering data nonurgent situations as well. The company, and you can’t get what you want, how good Recently, Hansen Technologies founded in 1980, is a pioneer of modern is it?” introduced the Hansen Sealed Motor noncondensable gas (air) purging Valve, ideal for state-of-the-art facilities equipment and continuous-level Hansen also needed to streamline its requiring precise control and feedback temperature sensing probes for customer service, manufacturing, and for optimal conditions, and which can be refrigeration systems, and Hansen’s warehouse processes to accommodate the controlled by a 4-20 mA signal. knowledgeable engineers continue to increasing number of orders. For example, develop original products for industry processing an order involved paperwork systems. Hansen also offers customers an that was literally walked from department to extensive line of components, including department. Hansen estimated that control valves, shut-off valves, pressure- processing a single order required workers relief valves, pumps, air purgers, defrost to walk more than one quarter of a mile. controls, and level controls. In addition, the ability to more accurately For a number of years, Hansen managed project manufacturing requirements would its business and manufacturing processes allow Hansen to take advantage of using proprietary applications that ran on opportunities to “buy” blocks of an IBM AS/400 server. Upgrading the manufacturing time from vendors that play system and keeping up with changes in the a critical role in Hansen’s own production business required an outside developer to process. Without the ability to make work on site—an expensive service. With commitments to its vendors, Hansen would solid projections for company growth, this become less able to compete effectively already costly service promised to become against larger competitors for those an even greater expenditure. services, eroding the company’s ability to predict and control its production As customer demand increased, system processes. performance became an issue across several departments. For example, the

“[Microsoft Great Says Mark Sebben, Chief Financial Officer manager for TECTURA. The result was a for Hansen, “We were using a system that solution that worked at every level in the Plains is] an easy-to- was severely limited in its function, highly company, including the production floor. implement, cost- customized, and prohibitive to maintain.” For the first time, warehouse operations workers began using computers to help effective solution Solution push orders through the manufacturing providing excellent With increasing needs for a flexible process. business system that could improve access functional capabilities to information, streamline processes, Hansen’s Microsoft Great Plains solution across the board.” increase productivity, and support company includes a full set of manufacturing growth, Hansen decided to implement modules tightly integrated with powerful Brad Bremer, Implementation Project Microsoft Business Solutions–Great Plains® financial and analytical applications. It Manager, Hansen Technologies (now part of Microsoft Dynamics™). operates on three servers running The company chose Microsoft Great Plains Microsoft Windows® 2000 Server, one because it is an “easy-to-implement, cost- serving as a domain controller running effective solution providing excellent Active Directory® service, one running functional capabilities across the board,” Microsoft Internet Information Services for says Brad Bremer, Hansen’s Web applications, and one hosting a implementation project manager. Mark Microsoft SQL Server™ 2000 database. Sebben agrees: “We needed a strong ERP Microsoft Great Plains also integrates with system right out of the box. Microsoft Great AnyView Creator and Browser from Plains was that solution.” Accountable Software, a third-party portal, and StarShip Shipping, a third-party TECTURA Corporation, an award-winning manifest application. Mary Lenehan says, Microsoft Gold Certified Partner with deep “In any implementation, TECTURA works knowledge and experience in the closely with software vendors such as manufacturing and distribution industry was Accountable Software to ensure that their enlisted to lead the project. products integrate smoothly with the Microsoft solution.” The implementation team first conducted an analysis of the business and system With flexible, integrated data, Hansen requirements. The project team included management now has full visibility into key individuals from departments such as operations processes, from forecasted engineering, customer service, and consumption, through work-in-progress accounting who provided hands-on (WIP), to shipment tracking. Rather than feedback about the company’s processes manually compiling summary reports each and system needs. day, managers can create up-to-date reports any time for review in a variety of “One vitally important aspect of our formats. relationship with Hansen is that we were able to involve both upper management Benefits and actual users in building the system,” Powerful and easy to use, Microsoft Great says Mary Lenehan, customer partner Plains streamlines production planning, “The Microsoft Great and empowers customer service and the four to five hours it used to take to operations workers to process orders more compile manufacturing information. Plains solution has efficiently. As a result, Hansen has seen been a good fit for measurable improvements across the Once customer service enters an order, the company, including reduced costs, system automatically creates pick tickets Hansen. The package increased productivity, and improved for stored items and manufacturing orders is strong out of the box, customer satisfaction. Now, a change to (MO) for items that require finishing work or the system can be done in 15 minutes at a configuration. As each stage of the work is flexible, and allows for cost of approximately $50 USD per completed, the operator closes the MO, user-driven incident, rather than the $500 USD spent moving the item to the next work area and, previously. finally, to shipping. In the past, MOs were improvements.” closed in a batch at the end of the day with Mark Sebben, Chief Financial Officer, Hansen realized productivity benefits as the potential for processing delays, and Hansen Technologies soon as the system went live. During the precise item status and location were not first week, the company successfully available. Now, orders move more handled the largest number of orders in two efficiently through the manufacturing years. Phil Marotta reports, “Everything process and work can be completed more went very smoothly. The system was able quickly. Also, because Microsoft Great to support the increased volume without a Plains tracks each item at each stage of hiccup.” the process, customer service knows whether it is in work, staged, in shipping, or Streamlined Order Processing in transit. Microsoft Great Plains provides managers with the information they need to control With complete control over the status and Hansen’s unique manufacturing location of each item, Hansen’s customer environment efficiently for both normal and service and shipping departments can high-priority orders. Internal efficiencies make more informed decisions that help have been realized in many areas, but one speed orders on their way. In an particular success is an improved emergency, an urgently needed component manufacturing process workflow that —sitting boxed and staged waiting for the enables Hansen’s manufacturing floor to rest of the order to be assembled—can be process orders faster, configure orders removed and shipped out immediately, to more precisely, track item status and be replaced later. Hansen has seen location, and increase on-time shipments. measurable order processing improvements with on-time shipments up With Microsoft Great Plains, Hansen has by 15 percent. replaced manual processing methods with a single point of entry for order information Increased Productivity through Shared and an automated workflow. Information is Information received more quickly, and now By eliminating manual processes, Hansen manufacturing is notified of new and employees can handle a larger volume of change orders within minutes rather than orders more efficiently. Recording bar codes for receipts and shipments is one example of how integrated systems and that the inventory and manufacturing shared data have contributed to a dramatic processes can keep pace with customer increase in productivity. needs. Purchase orders are initiated automatically, helping to ensure that the In the past, packages were labeled with bar flow of materials coincides with production codes—information used by the freight planning. company but not exploited by Hansen. With the Microsoft Great Plains solution, Hansen To date, Hansen’s inventory levels have workers can scan the bar codes, stabilized, while sales and inventory automatically updating the information in consumption has increased. The number of StarShip Shipping. The information is back orders is down, increasing delivery shared with Microsoft Great Plains and performance and improving customer associated with the specific sales order. satisfaction. In addition, the Hansen team Now customer service can track an order can fully project external sourcing needs to even after it leaves the shipping its vendor community and so take department, as well as automatically create advantage of aggregated, committed customer invoices. “Hansen had the pieces pricing with its key suppliers. for a more efficient business process already in place. The missing link was the Improved Customer Service technology,” explains Phil Marotta. Hansen regularly conducts customer satisfaction surveys in compliance with Scanning and then sharing bar-code data International Organization for between StarShip Shipping and Microsoft Standardization (ISO) standards, and since Great Plains has eliminated duplicate data adopting Microsoft Great Plains, customer entry and reduced errors. Now shipments satisfaction is on the increase. By move more quickly through the system to streamlining order processing and arrive at the correct address, and the integrating information across the tracking number, indicating that an order company, Hansen has been able to has been fulfilled, triggers Microsoft Great achieve shorter order lead times, reduced Plains to create an invoice that customer back orders, increased order accuracy, and service can finalize and send by e-mail or greater visibility into the supply chain. the postal system. Customers can access order information Accurate Manufacturing Requirements using Accountable Software’s AnyView Planning (MRP) Creator and Browser, a Web-based portal Tight control of material supplies is that provides views of shipment tracking imperative for any manufacturer. Microsoft numbers and invoices. With immediate Great Plains provides streamlined planning access to invoices, customers can print capabilities that allow management to them out and enter them into their own accurately forecast and plan materials accounts payable (AP) systems much requirements. Based on consumption faster, enabling them to take full advantage rates, Hansen managers can view of Hansen’s discount pricing terms. This is requirements 30 to 60 days in advance so a win for Hansen as well, because For More Information customer payments arrive sooner for an Microsoft Dynamics For more information about Microsoft improved cash flow. Implementing the Microsoft Dynamics is a line of integrated, products and services, call the Microsoft portal also has reduced incoming customer adaptable business management solutions Sales Information Center at (800) 426- calls by 20 percent, freeing up the that enables you and your people to make 9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft customer service and sales teams to focus business decisions with greater confidence. Canada Information Centre at (877) 568- on true value-added activities. Microsoft Dynamics works like familiar 2495. Customers who are deaf or hard- Microsoft software such as Microsoft of-hearing can reach Microsoft text Next Steps Office, which means less of a learning telephone (TTY/TDD) services at (800) Hansen Technologies looks to the future curve for your people, so they can get up 892-5234 in the United States or (905) with confidence that its business and and running quickly and focus on what’s 568-9641 in Canada. Outside the 50 manufacturing systems can continue to most important. And because it is from United States and Canada, please effectively support company growth. Microsoft, it easily works with the contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. Management and employees have systems that your company already has To access information using the World enthusiastically embraced the system, and implemented. By automating and Wide Web, go to: www.microsoft.com the company is now serving as a Microsoft streamlining financial, customer Great Plains 8.0 beta site. Mark Sebben relationship, and supply chain processes, For more information about TECTURA sums up the company’s view: “The Microsoft Dynamics brings together people, Corporation products and services, call Microsoft Great Plains solution has been a processes, and technologies, increasing (630) 955-2113 or visit the Web site at: good fit for Hansen. The package is strong the productivity and effectiveness of your www.tectura.com out of the box, flexible, and allows for user- business, and helping you drive business driven improvements.” success. For more information about Hansen Technologies Corporation products and For more information about Microsoft services, call (630) 320-1565 or visit the Dynamics, go to: Web site at: www.microsoft.com/dynamics www.hantech.com

Software and Services  Technologies  Microsoft SQL Server 2000 − Microsoft Active Directory  Microsoft Windows 2000 Server − Microsoft Internet Information Services  Microsoft Dynamics − Microsoft Business Solutions–Great Partners Plains  TECTURA Corporation

© 2006 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY. Microsoft, Active Directory, Microsoft Dynamics, and Windows are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

Document published February 2006