NEW YORK, NY — (Marketwired) — 04/23/13 — today announced that the Thomas Group will implement a suite of Infor applications at its nine locations around the world. These include the multi-site ERP solution , Infor BI for financial data analysis and consolidation, as well as Infor Planner and Infor Scheduler. will provide lightweight integration, enabling a continuous flow of information across all applications including third-party solutions. With a production of nearly six million metal parts per year, the Thomas Group is the world-s largest independent supplier for manufacturing of metal parts for the aerosol, perfume and cosmetics industry.
In recent years, the Thomas Group introduced international production sites outside Germany, including Spain, USA, Argentina and China. All sites work with standardized tools, stamping presses, and partly with so called anodizing facilities so the group can respond to changing customer requirements with flexible production capacities from plant to plant. This operating principle was not reflected in the previously used ERP systems, especially as each company worked on separate systems, and reporting and management reports were only covered by Excel. The group-s growth plans required an end-to-end system that reflects intercompany processes from production planning to the procurement of materials and inventory management. With the help of Fraunhofer IML, the group searched for a suitable solution which would correspond to a comprehensive requirements list of more than 2,500 positions.
“The range of solutions from Infor convinced us by its internationality and its functional depth, especially in materials management, scheduling and quality management,” says Oliver Schwarz, Managing Director of Finance at Thomas Group and primarily responsible for IT. “We can simulate what impact it has on other jobs if we insert a new customer request in the short term planning. With Infor, we will be able to cater to our our customers even more flexible and punctual across the markets and to expand our position in the market.”
Infor Planner and Infor Scheduler enable the Thomas Group to plan against limited labor and machine capacity across locations, conveying a realistic picture which production volume is possible with the current material inventory and the current machine capacity. For example, the group stamps parts in one country and has them anodized in another, collecting fees for these services internally. This process can now be mapped through Infor-s material management functionality. The batch traceability in Infor LN enables the Thomas Group to improve quality management.
Infor BI will replace Excel as a controlling and reporting tool at the Thomas Group. The solutions will help to evaluate the performance of each profit center and to understand, for example, gross margins drilled down to parts level. Infor ION eventually facilitates the exchange of information between applications and setting up workflows.
“Infor has gradually expanded its international presence in recent years. With the Thomas Group, it proved to be a real competitive advantage that we can offer our software in local versions and implement it at all Thomas locations, including in Argentina, with our own staff,” says Michael Kemmer, Senior Director, Sales at Infor. “In the near future we will also accompany the rollout in China.”
Founded in Germany in 1963, the THOMAS GROUP has developed over the years to become a manufacturer with an international presence to serve the cosmetic, fragrance and pharmaceutical industries with special, partly anotized stamped metal parts as well as manufacturers of aerosols. With 347 employees worldwide and a forward-looking economic planning THOMAS GROUP has become a leading manufacturer of metal components.
Infor is fundamentally changing the way information is published and consumed in the enterprise, helping 70,000 customers in 194 countries improve operations, drive growth, and quickly adapt to changes in business demands. Infor offers deep industry-specific applications and suites, engineered for speed, and with an innovative user experience design that is simple, transparent, and elegant. Infor provides flexible deployment options that give customers a choice to run their businesses in the cloud, on-premises, or both. To learn more about Infor, please visit .
Infor customers include:
19 of the top 20 aerospace companies
12 of the top 13 high tech companies
10 of the top 10 pharmaceutical companies
23 of the top 50 largest US hospitals
43 of the top 50 industrial distributors
26 of the top 35 global retailers
5 of the top 9 brewers
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