Client background

A large steel manufacturer with three mills and one heat treat facility was in the process of implementing a new ERP system across its enterprise.

The business challenge

The client wanted to standardize processes across business units and replace antiquated information systems. They approached Baker Tilly Digital to implement a solution for migrating its Manufacturing Execution System (MES) and inventory data from several legacy systems into the new consolidated ERP. MES data for thousands of parts and millions of pounds in inventory needed to be migrated. The client’s goals for the implementation included:

• A scalable, automated solution to support daily validation and testing
• Accurate and consistent data transformation
• MES suite migration including:
  - Open and completed job orders and routings
  - Heats and lots
  - Serialized inventory
  - Dimensional data and quality check sheets
  - Customer purchase order releases

Strategy and solution

Baker Tilly Digital worked with the client to scope and define the functional requirements for their ERP migration. After reviewing the existing data pipelines and architecture, the team decided to replace key pieces of infrastructure to meet the project needs and minimize the total cost of ownership. Following project mapping, Baker Tilly Digital played a critical role in the ERP cutover by defining each manufacturing facility’s unique requirements, developing purpose-built solutions for each and then supporting the cutover team with daily migration and gap reporting.

Baker Tilly Digital provided this manufacturing client with the skills, knowledge and solutions needed to take full advantage of their Plex investment and support its full-scale MES and inventory cutover. The automated cutover solutions enabled the client to free up critical human capital to focus on the greater ERP implementation. The Baker Tilly Digital process enabled the client to:

• Complete training for various functional units using “actual” data from their legacy systems
  - Logistics, scheduling and shipping jobs
  - Production facilitators, producing material side-by-side jobs with legacy systems
• Complete daily script testing using data from their legacy systems
• Verify proper inventory count and part data information well in advance of the scheduled go-live date