Baggage handling firm taps Glovia to optimize business processes, replace disparate apps for improved sales, inventory management
El Segundo, CA — March 23, 2006 — G&T Conveyor, the largest privately held U.S. manufacturer of airline baggage handling equipment and systems, said this week it is utilizing Glovia International 's extended enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution, glovia.com, to replace it's multiple legacy systems and standardize the company onto a single enterprise solution.
G&T Conveyor's products are used throughout airports worldwide for transporting customer's luggage from the ticket counter to the aircraft, from the aircraft to the baggage claim area, and through security checkpoints. The company's headquarters and manufacturing facility are located in Tavares, Fla., with an additional 25 locations spread throughout North America providing sales and support services.
The Selection Process
With multiple legacy systems not fully integrated or even implemented and unable to effectively support G&T's growing operations, the company searched for a single solution that could manage all of its enterprise needs. Because no two baggage-handling systems are exactly alike, G&T has to design its complex products according to each customer's individual requirements.
"We really wanted a company that not only supports our [engineer-to-order/make-to-order (ETO/MTO)] manufacturing needs but also has a relatively large corporate structure and customer base. We are not willing to wager our company's future on a smaller vendor that may not be around in three or four years," stated Bill Roche, ERP team leader for G&T Conveyor.
Orin Owen, director of IT for G&T Conveyor, added, "We chose Glovia because its product functionality and corporate structure are the best fit for our business and what we want to accomplish in terms of integration and gaining greater control of our operations," says
Supporting ETO/MTO
One of the critical functionality requirements G&T needed with their new enterprise solution is to manage order and product configurations quickly and easily. glovia.com's rules-based configuration engine configurator provides G&T with a Web-based product configurator to quote, sell and deliver its complex products effectively and in a timely manner.
"With glovia.com, we're able to get away from customizing every component we have to manufacture and move to a more standardized environment that allows us to "plug-and-play" to configure our products," continued Roche.
Increased Visibility
Inventory management is another area of great interest to G&T Conveyor, as the company needed a way to be able to track its components from engineering all the way through installation. Glovia's inventory management functionality provides G&T a system with integrated, interactive management of all its inventory and full visibility of all material movement. The functionality also provides complete multi-location management to make planning inventory replenishment more timely and effective.
"We want to provide all employees with greater visibility into what we are actually doing for a project and have that information pushed or flow through the configurator," explained Owen. "By having one central location to view project information everyone is on the same page and able to see what is required to meet the project requirements, configuration and deadline."
Yuji Nakasu, president and CEO of Glovia International, stated that his company is excited to have one of the top manufacturers in the baggage handling equipment industry as a customer. "glovia.com's solutions framework supports the actual ways ETO/MTO manufactures, like G&T Conveyor, operate to be able to quickly react to project changes in order to rebalance supplies, resources and demands and improve overall company productivity and efficiency. We look forward to a long and prosperous relationship with G&T Conveyor."
Additional Articles of Interest
- — A logistics team is called upon to craft supply chain processes that update logistics and inventory management at the growing retail chain Michaels Stores Inc. Read more in "The Art of Supply Chain Optimization," a Best Practices article in the October/November 2005 issue of Supply and Demand Chain Executive.