Client background

Amphenol Adronics (Adronics) is a major supplier of RF interconnected and mast antennas to global auto manufacturers and integrators. The manufacturer was acquired by Amphenol Corp. in 2010 and moved its main operation to Hays, Kansas. Three new plants were added in Monterrey, Mexico, and Nogales, Mexico, and China.

The business challenge

Amphenol Adronics had long outgrown its PC-based system of spreadsheets and manual processes for running the business. Executives had limited visibility into production output, inventory and revenue across their global locations. Thousands of pieces of inventory were manually accounted for, production status on the plant floor was unknown, and information that was received electronically from customers and suppliers had to be re-entered into Adronics’ manual systems. Employees were stretched thin with system workarounds and manual data input.

Adronics was looking for an enterprise-wide ERP system that could:

• Automate and bring visibility to its back-office, inventory and plant functions at all of its facilities around the globe.
• Be easy enough for the entire organization to use – from the plant floor to the top floor.
• Be smart enough to handle the scheduling and electronic invoicing requirements of the automotive industry, its primary client.

The company chose the Plex Manufacturing Cloud, not only for its ability to automate and streamline functions and improve productivity, but for its recognized use among auto industry OEMs and suppliers. The manufacturer chose the accounting and financials, purchasing, shop floor, inventory, planning and scheduling, and maintenance tools for its initial launch.

The Baker Tilly approach

The Baker Tilly team worked closely with Adronics managers to understand their procedures and how they would be translated into the Plex system. Using their deep understanding of the Plex system modules, ERP and the auto industry, the Baker Tilly team:

• Provided guidance on which tools would provide the most benefits to Adronics immediately, and which tools could wait to be deployed later.
• Developed a manual of standard operating procedures that the manufacturer could
  
  reference or use to train future employees.
• Conducted onsite training for key leaders on the system, who in turned trained their
  
  own staff on the Plex tools that are relevant to their work.
• Helped deploy Plex UX across three Adronics locations in under six months.

Adding to the complexity of the implementation, Adronics was the first manufacturer to implement the new Plex UX interface. The Baker Tilly team served as leaders in UX testing and provided Plex and Adronics with guidance on how to fine-tune the new interface and enhance the overall design and experience.

The business impact

Once the initial implementation of Plex UX was completed across their global enterprise, Amphenol operations and executive leadership were able to view daily sales, daily shipping data, production numbers and operational performance from their own devices through the following enablers:

• Enterprise wide inventory management and optimization
• Real-time enterprise wide revenue management
• Top-down, cross plant manufacturing performance and quality visibility
• Streamlined customer EDI data management with integrated production planning
• Consolidated, global financial reporting

Today, about 50 percent of Adronics’ business now runs on Plex Manufacturing Cloud. The entire organization now has greater visibility into daily operations, and labor-intensive manual processes are now automated.

• Inventory accuracy improved greatly, from 97.6 percent to 99.81 percent with Plex at the Hays Plant.
• Order entry and invoicing, which each took 800-1,000 employee hours per month, are now automated.
• Plant floor efficiency has increased by 10 percent. Each inventory item now has a bar code that is scanned and tracked by Plex each step of the way, which speeds production, saves money on redundant components and raw materials, and reduces workers’ time spent searching for items.

**For more information on this topic, or to learn how Baker Tilly specialists can help, contact our team.**