Success Stories – Ismont
Ismont uses Microsoft Dynamics NAV in order to improve Efficiency and Cost Benefits.
Being active in work clothing business, Ismont, started to use Microsoft Dynamics NAV ERP and textile solution as a vertical solution in all business processes primarily of supply chain, inventory, finance, production and capacity planning. Company, thus, ensured a complete integration between different locations, achieved high efficiency and cost benefits in purchasing, order and production processes.
Situation
Founded in 1975, Ismont the most long-established and largest corporation of work clothing industry in Turkey. Ismont addresses every industry in work clothing with a wide range of products including Industry, Security, Tourism-Hotel and Hospital clothes. Having 10 shops, including 9 in Turkey and 1 in Germany, company has a marketing department for wholesale and retailing in these shops. Providing services with 450 employees, Ismont carries out mass production on the conveyor system in factories located in Adapazarı on an indoor of 7000 m2 and Istanbul on an indoor of 2500 m2. Having an annual production capacity of 1,200,000 units, Ismont produces ISO 9001 certified work clothing. Company has targets such as to produce high quality products with low cost and make timely delivers to customers with quality assurance system and to be at the front in quality race both locally and internationally.
İsmont was using a program for financial transactions such as billing and current account for a while. Engin Kaya, Vice President of Financial Affairs of the company says that: “Since company has been steadily growing, software we used for a long time became insufficient. Program can create invoices and follow up trading account, however some accounting processes were requiring manual data entry; did not have a function in production and other business processes. It had shortcomings in reporting too. There were difficulties in decision support process. And also, we needed a new software for transition to new Turkish Liras by 2005, because our software did not support the kuruş digits.”
Ismont is also having integration problems in the current system. While some data are kept in the documents created by Word and Excel etc. programs and a separate program for barcoding. Since integration was insufficient, daily data from shops are sent to Headquarters via e-mail and other mail tools and therefore many processes must be re-handled again in the headquarters. Ismont was in need of an ERP program which he can manage all business processes under one roof and in an integrated manner.
Solution
Ismont began looking out for purchasing a new ERP software since 2003. Company analyzed many software in the market for 1.5 years; purchased the trial version of many software and set up and tried together with solution partner. Also included among these software is Microsoft Dynamics NAV. Engin Kaya adds: “Microsoft Dynamics NAV came out as the most suitable solution to the system we imagined with its solid structure. At the decision stage, there were many factors such as cost, reliability, customization to company needs, minimization of business processes. However the first factor was the name of Microsoft being an enduring company. Of course, we also see that Microsoft Dynamics NAV and industrial vertical solution Textile Management Solution is the best program responsive to our targets for our business, at the end of demo presentations.”
Ismont kicked off the project together with 6Gen, a Microsoft solution partner, at the end of October 2004. Since transition to new TRY is at the beginning of 2005 in Turkey, the project must be launched and go into the live production in no time. At the first phase, following an expedited analysis process, works for reorganization of the current inventory structure are realized. Following an implementation and adaptation process shorter than 2.5 months, except for production and capacity planning module of Microsoft Dynamics NAV, all other modules are gone into the live production so that invoices can be created in eight different location of the company in January 3, 2005. Mehmet Ali Emir, 6 Gen Software Operations Coordinator says that: “Microsoft Dynamics NAV started to be used in finance and supply chain processes of Ismont at the beginning of 2005. Such short period of deployment is a product of devotion of company employees and ISO certification of Ismont. In addition, as a result of a combination of Textile Management Solution used as an industry specific vertical solution with experiences and deep knowledge of 6Gen in textile industry, potential problematic points are pre-eliminated achieving the success. I would like to emphasize the contributions of Microsoft, who is always with us during all these works.”
Textile Management Solution, which is an industrial vertical solution, which is localized during the Ismont implementation and adaptation works has become the industrial solution of a choice for the companies producing and selling textile and ready-made industry. Mehmet Ali Emir says that: “In Textile you are required to develop a matrix structure on vertical and horizontal basis, namely an application on the color and size basis in all processes from production to sales. The urgency of transition into new TRY in 2005 and limited period of time caused us to deliver the project in two phases. In the first phase; with a work which will respond to the general requirements, we take Microsoft Dynamics NAV into the live production, and in the second phase; we customized the functions of these solution to operations of our customer.”
In the project in parallel to the main target of the Ismont, all business processes are aggregated under one roof thanks to Microsoft Dynamics NAV; integration is provided from shop to production, purchasing to shipment to resellers.
In addition to four main module of Microsoft Dynamics NAV: Business Relationship Management, Finance Management, Supply Chain Management and Analytics, Ismont also uses the Personnel Management Module. During customizations, PDA integration is provided for Ismont. Mehmet Ali Emir says that: “Ismont sales personnel, warehouse inventory personnel and production employees can use PDA. We can transfer any kind of document type existing in the Microsoft Dynamics NAV including production order, sales or purchase documents and inventory taking over the PDA. Data collected according to document type such as sales, purchasing, production or physical stock counting under these data transferred are compared with the same documents over the system and all differences not included in the documents except for quantity differences are presented to the user. Thus, it is possible to follow up at which stage is any work, shipment, purchasing or production and control that the correct data related with such movements are received or not.
As part of the Ismont project, Bartender Barcode Software is also integrated with Microsoft Dynamics NAV. Now it is possible to print out any kind of data in the requested detail on the label at any points of Microsoft Dynamics NAV. With user-based authorizations, which users have right to print out on which label with which data are defined. With this integration, a holistic solution is provided to Ismont.
In the middle of 2005 May, works are launched for using Microsoft Dynamics NAV in the production processes. Mehmet Ali Emir says that: “Completion of preparation to production and conveniences provided by Textile Management Solution as a vertical solution for industrial needs are enabled us to deploy the production module in an expedited manner. At the end of August, the first live productions of production module were completed. All phases from sales and purchasing to production are completed in a short period of time like eight months.”
Headquarters, two factories and ten locations of Ismont have around 40 users of Microsoft Dynamics NAV. German subsidiary of Ismont can access the head office over Terminal Server via VPN connection and can use Microsoft Dynamics NAV in German and carry out invoice, stock and current account follow up from head database.
In the company, a decision support system (Business Intelligence – BI) together with Microsoft Dynamics NAV is under development. Mehmet Ali Emir says that: “Decision support and OLAP application integrated in the Microsoft Dynamics NAV is developed by TARGIT company in collaboration with Microsoft. We installed the solution in Ismont for testing purposes. We will be supporting the decision support process over this application.”
Benefits
Central Management with Online System
With Microsoft Dynamics NAV application, it is possible to manage the business processes in the real time by establishing a solid online communication between headquarters of Ismont and various locations. Engin Kaya states that: “In shops you are making an operational sales or taking an order specific to customer. Now, we can see these orders centrally in our headquarters and follow up with a very fast data flow how much turnover our shops have at any time. In shops, there is a return with the same speed in any process. Therefore, it can clearly be seen how Microsoft Dynamics NAV benefits in terms of directing the production and purchasing process according to requirements.”
Microsoft Dynamics NAV allows shops to see product status, what products in what size, what color are available in general inventory and shops. Engin Kaya adds: “Previously when a shop requests an unavailable product from another shop, if such product is a best-seller, then such shop might not want to deliver such product. Now everyone can actively see which products are at where in how many units. Therefore, unsold inventory is mostly avoided; our shops are not acting individually any more and they find their answers about stocks and products from productions in more corporate structure. Thus, we can benefit at maximum levels with minimum level of stocks.”
Cost Benefits in Purchasing Processes
Ismont can manage supply chain and inventories more efficiently and with cost benefits with Microsoft Dynamics NAV. Engin Kaya adds: “Now, we can decide on purchasing product to be supplied and purchase such product in the amounts really needed while purchasing raw material or semi-product by evaluating the inventories in more detail and on time. This provides a significant cost benefits to the company, because keeping minimum levels of inventories always provide the company financial comfort.”
“At the order taking stage, all process from entry of such order in the system, establishing data standard and delivering it to the production, production, post-production billing processes are all being followed-up. This is our greatest advantage. Even in two hours after receipt of an order, we can follow up all details about what are done related with that order, what stages it undergoes and what processes are applied.”
Reports Generated Per Requirements
Microsoft Dynamics NAV having an open and full-integrated structure allow to access any kind of data instantly on the screens. From this perspective, when any data print-out is required, then these are directly sent to the printer and works in integrated with other Microsoft products. On the other hand, Microsoft Dynamics NAV enables great conveniences in generating the decision support reports which will steer the company strategy as well as daily operational reports. Engin Kaya adds: “In our older system, reporting was very scattered. With Microsoft Dynamics NAV, we designed all reports that we will need in our company including top management reports. What type of report will be generated by whom is defined. Our current reporting system works quiet properly and our employees at every level can generate reports which contains data they require in the format they defined. Reporting part is open and we may thing otherwise tomorrow and if we need “such type of report”, then report can be used for term needed and there is no limitations on the reporting.”
With Microsoft Dynamics NAV, employees in different departments of the company can generate themselves the report they need without support of any people. This contributes in efficiency of personnel and facilitating the business processes.
A Strategic Support to Top Management
6 Gen currently integrated the offer process in the system developed. Thus all of the offers received from customers are handled over the system. Which offer is realized and which is not are being followed up from archives. This provides important information to Ismont in terms of marketing activities. By entering in the system any top manager can examine the offers and orders within the limitations of authorizations; answers to how much of the offers are transformed into order, why those untransformed ones was so etc. questions can be seen over the system.
Production Tailored To Customer Requirements
Besides standard production, Ismont also produces items tailored to each customer. Ismont can create an archive specific to a customer by recording in the system sizes, color and design differences related with tailor-made products purchased by customers. Therefore, when customer places the same order in the future, Ismont can access quickly such data specific to such customer through Microsoft Dynamics NAV and Textile Management Solution and produce such items without losing time.
Integration with Horizontal and Vertical Applications
Thanks to Microsoft Dynamics NAV supporting the various horizontal and vertical applications used in different industries successfully and capable of using them in an integrated manner, it can develop the most suitable solutions to the needs of the companies and make it easy to exchange knowledge specific to industries. Mehmet Ali Emir says that: “One of the most important things in the textile industry is that while taking an order, to answer quickly the questions such as which product will be produced in which color and size in how many quantities, which fabric and accessories will be used, and how much of a total fabric will be dyed which color. At this point, Textile Management Solution enriched Microsoft Dynamics NAV so that it can provide industrial solutions more suitable to fashion and textile companies. With one single integrated structure, Textile Management Solution is developed to help companies in ready-made clothing industry to sequence and prioritize processes such as the pre-collection, collection preparation, pre-costing, product lifecycle and meet the market-specific requirements. The main subject covered by Textile Management Solution is the myriad of the variants of products worked on by fashion companies. Such variants are not only color and size but also fabric, design, multi size dimensions. By using standardized solutions, it is really cumbersome to enter the data such as purchase and sales price, order details and technical specifications in the system and revise and report such data. Textile Management Solution solved this by standard two size and advanced flexible matrix structure with multi-dimensions. This feature is not only used in sales, logistics and productions but also all processes. Different pricing for product variants, predictive estimates, goods selection and variations , PDM (Product Data Management), order collecting and delivery suggestions etc. features allows for an ease of operations and access to the data.”
While Ismont, likewise, is making use of horizontal and vertical solutions running integrated with Microsoft Dynamics NAV in barcode applications used together with PDA devices, he plans to use such solutions in the decision support system he plans for the future.
Modular structure of Microsoft Dynamics NAV and integrability with different solutions also provide a cost advantage to Ismont. As a result, company can add new licenses when it is in need of a new solution and meet it with right investment in the right time.