Johnson Matthey, a specialty chemical company focused on catalysts, precious metals, fine chemicals and process technology, has recently begun a SAP implementation at its South African autocatalyst manufacturing operation in Johannesburg with EOH as its selected implementation partner.
Chris Holden, Manager: ESP solutions, EOH's SAP business unit, explains that EOH originally engaged with Johnson Matthey in 2007 when the company was evaluating ERP (enterprise resource planning) solutions.
"The company has deployed SAP at other operations around the globe within its Emission Control Technologies (ECT) business, and this experience will be extremely valuable in the South African implementation."
He adds that because EOH had already been engaged with Johnson Matthey regarding its business requirements, the team had an understanding of the company's needs and business processes - particularly its manufacturing processes, "We were subsequently invited to submit a proposal to implement the new ERP solution."
Ryan Crawford, ERP Project Manager at Johnson Matthey South Africa, says the decision to implement the SAP solution was as a result of Johnson Matthey facing a number of challenges.
"Our existing ERP solution was functioning more as a finance solution than as a complete, integrated ERP solution; and our home-grown warehouse and inventory management systems were not fully integrated. The lack of one integrated system resulted in inefficiencies in processes and limited the alignment of business data to our growth in operations. We had also seen the benefits of an integrated SAP solution already implemented at some of our other international operations, and thus wanted to take full advantage of these - integration had become a necessity."
Johnson Matthey was also facing a number of business issues as a result of this lack of integration. "Insufficient visibility, data replication and unsynchronised data were creating problems when it came to planning and decision-making," says Holden. "There were also some operational restraints as a result of the applications in place."
In addition to the SAP ERP implementation, EOH will be providing the SAP integration layer between Johnson Matthey's shop floor and its new ERP solution and assisting Johnson Matthey with the design of the MES and plant control system layers. Holden maintains this was a key differentiator when it came to EOH being selected as the implementation partner.
"The diversity of companies and business units comprising EOH enabled us to provide Johnson Matthey with an umbrella of solutions from a single source. Johnson Matthey makes use of MES software, for example, which will be bolstered by this new implementation - and can be tweaked in-house should this be necessary."
He adds that EOH will also be facilitating the change management aspect of the project through EOH Consulting. This makes EOH the perfect partner for Johnson Matthey.
With the implementation already under way (started mid-January 2008), Holden anticipates the main challenges facing the team will be those of facilitating user acceptance, and providing Johnson Matthey with an implementation template that can be used globally at a later stage. Holden says EOH is familiar with these challenges and intends to use them as opportunities to add even more value.
For Holden, the most exciting thing about the project remains the ideal fit between Johnson Matthey and the EOH group. "This is the perfect example of how we can harness the strengths of our business units to meet the exact needs of our customers. We anticipate the project to be extremely successful and are confident that the final solution will make significant improvements to how Johnson Matthey does business."
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