Cotton fiber and foam manufacturer vies for visibility, cost control at its 11 operating companies
El Segundo, CA — November 13, 2003 — Glovia International, a subsidiary of Fujitsu and a provider of extended enterprise resource planning ERP solutions for engineer-to-order and high-volume manufacturers, announced today that Barnhardt Manufacturing Co., a 103-year-old diversified manufacturer based in Charlotte, NC, is implementing its extended ERP suite, glovia.com, at all 11 of its operating companies.
Barnhardt said glovia.com would enable it to increase visibility into its operations, improving cost control and decision-making dramatically.
Prior to implementing Glovia, Barnhardt explained that it labored with a system that could only deliver such critical data as inventory levels and orders on a monthly basis, leaving the company struggling to understand its true costs and operational performance.
Barnhardt recorded more than $100 million in revenues last year and is growing at upward of 15 percent annually, so it said it needs a robust ERP suite to handle the various requirements of its companies today and for years to come.
With all 11 operating companies running on glovia.com, Barnhardt predicted that it would obtain real-time information to make faster more informed decisions, increase organizational responsiveness, identify and track key performance indicators, and improve information accessibility. By running a more efficient and informed business, Barnhardt also said it would be able to pinpoint problem areas faster, react more quickly to customers changing demands and identify decreases in inventory levels.
Each operating company will be supported by a single glovia.com installation and linked through an enterprise framework that is under development, according to Glovia. Within two years, Glovia said it would finish implementing its extended ERP suite at all 11 Barnhardt companies, an implementation process designed to ensure a lower total cost of ownership for the lifetime of the product.
The first two companies are currently implementing glovia.com and are scheduled to go live by February 2004. Three more companies are scheduled to go live by the end of 2004 with the remaining six companies scheduled to be up and running by Q3 2005.
"An area where ARC is seeing increasing growth in ERP sales is the mid-market. Most of the companies in this sector, of which Barnhardt is one, are operating with outdated enterprise software that is incapable of providing timely visibility across the enterprise," said John Moore, vice president and general manager of Enterprise Advisory Services, ARC Advisory Group.
After implementation costs, Barnhardt estimated its ongoing annual overhead for all of its IT services, including glovia.com, will be approximately one percent or less of the company's total annual revenues. The manufacturing company said this is a significant savings, considering the average industry cost of running an ERP system alone usually costs three times this amount.
Beyond the cost savings, glovia.com's ability to manage a wide range of manufacturing styles natively made it a good fit for Barnhardt, whose businesses include various bleached and carded cotton products and a variety of polyurethane foam products.
"glovia.com delivers the best functionality of any solution we considered, as well as a product architecture enabling greater visibility and management of our business processes," said Tom Barnhardt, president of Barnhardt Manufacturing. "Glovia's customer service has also been impressive. Also, every Glovia representative we've encountered has worked diligently to help us meet our goals and become a true strategic business partner. This really made a strong impression on Barnhardt, and made the decision to select Glovia an easy one."
