Manufacturer cites IFS' support for lean and Kanban processes among reasons for selecting its supply chain software
Chicago — February 10, 2006 — IFS announced today that Preformed Line Products Co. (PLP), a manufacturer of products and systems for the construction and maintenance of energy, communications and broadband networks, has signed a contract to implement IFS Applications business software. Initially, PLP will deploy the IFS software at all the company's U.S. locations, including its headquarters in Cleveland and two manufacturing plants in Arkansas and North Carolina.
PLP said it will use IFS' supply chain management, financial, engineering, corporate performance management, workforce management, and sales and marketing applications.
"PLP needed to replace a legacy [enterprise resource planning (ERP)] system in order to add functionality to its users in such areas as ad-hoc data accessibility, executive decision support, and supplier and customer portals," said Larry Jansen, director of IT for Preformed Line Products. "We also needed to integrate data from multiple systems to provide for more complete and accurate information processing.
Jansen said that after looking at several software packages, his company chose IFS Applications because its single solution best matches PLP's functional needs. IFS provides outstanding functionality for our multiple modes of manufacturing, strong support for lean and Kanban processes, and the global capabilities and product support we need to run our international operations," he explained.
Cindy Jaudon, president and CEO of IFS North America, added, "IFS offers a global presence combined with local support. Our component-based software supports multiple sites, multiple languages, multiple currencies and multiple sets of accounting rules. And our 'hybrid lean' solution gives mixed-mode manufacturers, such as Preformed Line Products, the flexibility to deploy lean principles step by step in some parts of the organization while maintaining a traditional order-based system for others."
Other IFS high-tech customers include Rockwell Automation, Philips Business Communications, NEC, SiRF, Maxon Motor, Kontron, and Olympus Optical.
Additional Articles of Interest
- Lean is still a top priority for many organizations, and now leading enterprises are applying lean principles to the supply chain. Read about the challenges in building a "lean supply chain" in "The Value of Being Out-of-stock (Almost) Everywhere," the Final Thoughts column in the April/May 2005 issue of Supply & Demand Chain Executive.
