Kaizen: Japanese for "improvement" or "change for the best", refers to philosophy or practices that focus upon continuous improvement of processes. This Injection molding and die cutting manufacturer wanted to know if MRP was a full fit, partial fit or not a fit for their business. The scope of this project involved and analysis of their Sales Order Entry to Order Release process.

1. SYSPRO/SUPPLY CHAIN KAIZEN
EVENT
PROCESS IMPROVEMENTS:
NOT JUST FOR THE SHOP FLOOR
Leslie Galbraith, CMA
VP Finance/Administration
Argus Industries

2. Presentation Outline
Argus Industries –
o Welcome to the Tribe
Argus & SYSPRO –
o a look back in time
Argus & SYSPRO –
o where the future will take us

4. WELCOME TO OUR TRIBE!
ARGUS 101:
Incorporated in 1962
Privately owned (SME)
Located in MB & ON
50k sq/ft, 3x Facilities
80+ Employees

5. The
Argus
Journey
1962 – 85:Portable Toilet Kings
1981 – 96:Building Molding & Gasket Division
1992: Received first certification for ISO9003
1997 – 99: Building Quality Systems, ISO9002
Y2K: One of 1st in Canada to get ISO9001:2000
2002: Purchased Snappi-Hookers Division
2003 – 05:Building brands, Processes, Culture
2005: Acquired Canadian Controlled Goods Certification
2007: Won MAAAward for Quality & Teamwork
2008: Purchased EPT Mfg – Now METALS Division
2008: AS9100 – First Certified in MB, ~20th in Canada
2009: 2nd Generation takes President & CEO role
2009 – 10:Established Executive Team & Started LEAN Journey
2010: Competitive Edge Program Started January – NWAA
2011: VIP Certification for Bombardier Aerospace Supplier Program
2012: AS9100 Certification (Rev C) – one of the 1st in Canada
2012: CEO asked to speak in largest LEAN conference in North
America. Ranked Top Talk.
2013: Article in the Winnipeg Free Press, A Journey to Excellence
2013: 1st to achieve “Contender Level” in the CE program in MB.
(Leadership Foundation)
2013: We were interviewed for the Wall Street Journal because of
our Tribal Rituals.

8. Markets Served
from Agriculture to Aerospace

9. Rubber Injection Molding
CNC Cut & Die Cut
Materials
Aerospace & Defense
CNC Metals Division

10. Mission
Statement
Making Tomorrow Better than Today,
Through Great People & Great Products

11. Vision
Statement
20/20 PERFECT VISION
In the “Perfect Vision” we continue to:

12. Continuous
Improvement
Initiatives

15. SYSPRO through
the years

16.  20 + years with SYSPRO software
 Impact Award
 Encore
 SYSPRO
 2004 – moved from traditional time cards to Shop Clock and began importing labour hours
directly into SYSPRO.
 2006 – left our stand alone ACT Customer Relationship Management and implemented SYSPRO
CRM (formerly known as ADAPT)
 2008-09 – Began to question SYSPRO as our ERP system .
 Late 2010 - attended the SYSPRO User Conference in Dallas and solidified our decision to stay
with SYSPRO
 Spring 2011 - attended training courses in SRS, System Administration, Power Tailoring
 Fall 2011 - Lean Journey moved to the Office environment
 Developed a team to move Argus’ processes, with the help of SYSPRO, to the next level

17. SYSPRO Lean Journey Begins:
 Brainstorming event with All users.
 Identified a list of 76 “wishes” or opportunities for improvement
 Met with Dale Kehler and Lynn Green from SYSPRO to outline what we hoped to
accomplish.
 The project was lit up and the work began.
 Developed a plan to move to 6.1 in June 2012 with some of the wishes covered off prior
to the upgrade.
 Team attended training in Halifax in Spring 2012
 Team began working on quick hits/gems to be ready for Upgrade Day
 Upgrade Day: on site training and introduction to Quick Hits & Gems
 Lynn Green in Winnipeg and Nallanie Manick in Pickering
 Ajay Saxena worked with the team on site identifying opportunities and other potential
Lean initiatives

18. Japanese for "improvement" or "change for the best", refers to
philosophy or practices that focus upon continuous improvement of
processes

19. SYSPRO Kaizen Event Team
• Christa
• Mario
• Ajay
• Lance
• George
• Leslie
• Carlos

20. Purpose & Scope
 Purpose: Is MRP full fit, partial fit or not a fit for
Argus.
 Scope: Sales order entry to order release

21. Deliverables
 MRP for Purchasing requirements
 MRP for MIN & Max requirements
 MRP for scheduling PWO’s
 MRP for scheduling SO’s
 MRP for blanket SO’s
 MRP for “Rush” SO’s
 MRP for releasing orders
 MRP Vs. Lean. Integration with lean mfg. practices
 Conclusions

22. What is MRP
INPUTS
•Demand
•Forecast
•Safety Stock
•Quotations
•Sales Order
MRP
Tools:
•Load
Leveling
OUTPUTS
•What to Buy
•What to Make
•When to Buy
•When to Make
•How much to Buy
•How Much to Make
• Resource
Planning
• Capacity
Planning

23. What is Load Leveling
• Load Leveling
Machine Capacity
per day
Jobs scheduled
for specific day
Available Time,
Scheduled Time and
Free Time

24.  Value Stream Map for current state of business processes
from SO entry to SO fulfilment
 Team gained visibility of the entire cycle and the gaps that are in our
current process.
Outcome

25. Identified Assumptions required to work in an
MRP environment.
Demand is created by Forecast, SO, Safety Stock
and Min/Max
BOM and Drawings have been confirmed and are
accurate
Inventory is issued to WIP at time material is
moved to production
Outcome

26. Outcome
 Sales Order Entry - Current State
 2-1/2 minutes to enter order, create PWO and print PWO and
drawing
 Customer Required Date was not confirmed with Production and there was
no visibility to raw materials available
 Jobs were created with no confirmation from Production for capacity and no
visibility to raw material availability.
 Wait time - ~ 48 hrs to get confirmation for material delivery
and then confirm capacity available.

27. Outcome
Sales Order Entry - Future State
Visibility of Production Time
MTF – Manufacturing
Time Fence – How long
to manufacture
PTF – Planning Time
Fence – How long to
procure material and
manufacture based on
load and leadtimes

28. Outcome
Sales Order Entry - Future State
Visibility of Material Availability
Quantity Available Supplier Lead Time EBQ – Min Order Qty

29. Outcome
Sales Order Entry - Future State
Visibility of Capacity Available
Print Dummy Job for Qty
to make to determine
machine and time

30. Outcome
Sales Order Entry - Future State
Visibility of Capacity Available
Check capacity by
resource and machine for
requested production date

31. 31
Outcome
Sales Order Entry - Future State
3 minutes
 to enter order
 confirm material availability or supplier leadtime
 confirm machine capacity through load leveling
 create PWO and print PWO and drawing.
 Schedule a realistic delivery date and provide estimated ETA for
customer
Eliminates 48 hours wait time to confirm non-rush orders
Provides more visibility to resource and machine availability

32. 32
Outcome
PO Entry Current State
Minimum of 3 separate Inputs
PWO (work Order)
Sales Order
PO Worksheet (which took at least 5 minutes just to run the report)

33. 33
PO Entry Current State
 Need to check individual stock codes to find Job Allocations and Sales Orders
 Need to consolidate demand.
 Need to confirm required in-house dates
 Need to confirm accuracy of demand
 Then – begin order entry process
 Enter PO by Supplier – one order at a time
Outcome

34. Outcome
PO entry Future State
MRP Purchase Order Review Report
Identifies suggested POs based on full demand – PWO, SO,
Safety Stock, Min/Max – existing and suggested

35. Outcome
PO Entry – Future State
PO Review – identifies source of demand

36. Outcome
PO Entry - Future State
 From PO Review – select, change, ignore, create
 Multiple POs & Multiple Suppliers at one time

37. EffortsRequired
Value/Benefits Big ValueSmall Value
StrategicDon’t Do
Quick Hits Gems
Drawing attached
to PWO’s
Syspro Kaizen Event
Value Graph
5S Project in Whse.
• More Kanban
• Fix Raw & Finish
Goods
Implement GRN
(Goods Receiving
Notice) Module
Clean Master Data
• BOM
• Structures
• Supplier lead tImes
• Mfg lead times
• Incorporate EBQ’s
• Safety stock qty’s
• Utilize tool set option
Create Argus
EBQ Process
Deploy Training on
how to use
Work leveling
Advance Kitting
Modify templates
Use printing multi-level
PWO’s at one time

38. Quick Hits without MRP
 Start printing Multi level PWOs at one time
 Change Information on Job Card and Reprint
 Add Buttons to Sales Order Entry screen to query material
availability
 Add Field to PO Entry to include Ship Date for Expediter Report
 Modify PO template for Supplier to confirm ETA, Price, Qty, ShipVia
 Implement GRN
 Embrace F8 – it is an important tool within SYSPRO

39. Lessons Learned
 MRP only Partial Fit for Argus
 Quotation & Estimates Module is worth further testing
 Broadened our understanding of what tools SYSPRO has to
offer right out of the box
 Ongoing Training to develop standardization for processes
within SYSPRO
 Develop housekeeping practices to maintain data integrity

40. Roadblocks & follow up
Discipline/standardization
Resources
Data integrity
Embracing change
Availability of SYSPRO Expert

41. Conclusions
 MRP is a partial fit for Argus
 MRP is a capacity/requirement planning tool and not a scheduling tool
 Develop a plan and execute with diligence
1. Clean Inventory
 leadtimes, batching rules, safety stock
2. Maintain BOM structures
 Work centres and routings
 Operations and Materials
3. Develop Training Plan
4. Maintain Data integrity – daily housekeeping

42. Leader Summary
The Kaizen event was not only MRP but a full
evaluation/review of the Supply Chain process
– order entry to fulfilment
Respect for team and time
Support and participation from all corners of
the organization
Constructive Challenges

43. Leader Summary
For MRP to work we need to keep the
momentum and commitment going that we
have started this week.
Team Building Experience
The team going into this event was not the same
one coming out of the event.

44. SYSPRO Looking Forward:
Quotes and estimates with Product Configuration
Continue to implement events, triggers, Pop ups
and reminders using VB Scripting
Gain Further Training with SBS
Upgrade to SYSPRO 7