“The Wheelabrator core model built on Microsoft Dynamics AX for Industrial Equipment Manufacturing is the key to restructuring our global operations to be more efficient and responsive to customers.”Phillip Hawthorne, CIO, Wheelabrator Group
Wheelabrator Group specializes in designing and manufacturing custom surface preparation and finishing solutions for a range of industries. As Wheelabrator grew rapidly, executives sought to standardize IT infrastructure and centralize global operations. After evaluating several enterprise resource planning systems, the company selected Microsoft Dynamics® AX. Wheelabrator worked
with Microsoft® Gold Certified Partner Columbus IT and industry specialists from Microsoft Gold Certified Partner To-Increase to tailor a deployment template for Microsoft Dynamics AX for
Industrial Equipment Manufacturing. The team deployed the solution at six Wheelabrator facilities in the United Kingdom before rolling it out internationally. Now, Wheelabrator gains increased
efficiency and improved visibility into operations and benefits from greater capacity for growth.
Situation
Celebrating 100 years of operation in 2008, Wheelabrator Group is one of the world’s largest and most established manufacturers of surface preparation equipment and technologies. The company engineers and builds custom surface cleaning and finishing equipment in seven manufacturing facilities across Europe and North America. This includes highly specialized airblast, peening,and wheelblast equipment and industrial painting systems for customers in industries
ranging from construction to aerospace.
In 1973, Wheelabrator Group embarked on a journey of growth through acquisition. Over the past 35 years, the company has added 10 manufacturing companies to its portfolio, all of which have been rebranded to carry the Wheelabrator name.
This tremendous growth gave rise to several operational challenges, especially as each of the newly acquired companies relied on its own localized IT infrastructure. In this environment, coordinating business processes, from quote bid and installation to production scheduling and project costing,
became extremely difficult. In addition, disparate systems made capturing consolidated business data and communicating real-time inventory information to vendors, suppliers, and customers practically impossible. Lack of system integration also precluded the use of an automated workflow, which meant that employees often relied on time-consuming manual processes to manage production tasks and track order status.
The company’s business model intensified the impact of these challenges. Customers engage Wheelabrator to create bespoke pieces of equipment or to modify or refurbish existing machines. So, instead of relying on a series of repeatable manufacturing
processes, the company must continuously adapt its production environment to accommodate frequent change requests. In fact, to meet customer delivery targets, the company routinely relies on parallel engineering and manufacturing. In this scenario, production staff begin building equipment while engineers design and test new components. In many cases, the local production management systems used at newly assimilated Wheelabrator subsidiaries lacked the flexibility to synchronize these complex processes, occasionally leading to project delays and cost overruns.
For Wheelabrator executives, all of these factors underscored the need to standardize
the company’s global operations on a worldclass enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. They were looking for a solution that offered built-in project-management capabilities for manufacturing, integration with existing line-of-business and industryspecific systems, and cost-effective
customizations to meet complex process–flow requirements and future growth needs.
Solution
Over the course of six months, Wheelabrator executives evaluated a range of tier-one ERP solutions based on four main selection criteria:
- Comprehensive manufacturing projectmanagement functionality
- Specialty engineering system integration and cost-effective solution modification
- Ability to centrally administer the solution and deploy it internationally
- Support from industry experts and a clear product road map
Developing the Wheelabrator Core Model
Wheelabrator turned to Microsoft® Gold Certified Partner Columbus IT, global experts in delivering manufacturing industry solutions. In close collaboration with industry specialists from Microsoft Gold Certified Partner To-Increase, the Columbus IT team helped Wheelabrator implement Microsoft
Dynamics AX for Industrial Equipment Manufacturing at its six operational facilities in the United Kingdom.
Wheelabrator worked with the Columbus IT team to create the Wheelabrator core model
for Microsoft Dynamics AX, a deployment template designed to transform the Wheelabrator business process flow to make it more efficient. The goal for the Wheelabrator core model was to facilitate the
shift from a standard, linear production process to a more flexible, project-oriented environment. Taking advantage of the built-in project-manufacturing capabilities of Microsoft Dynamics AX for Industrial Equipment Manufacturing, the Wheelabrator core model improves the flow of information
across all lines of business, making it easier for managers to track items throughout the production life cycle. “We’ve known for some time that a project-based approach makes more sense to handle custom manufacturing,” says Hawthorne.
Integrating Design and Manufacturing
To streamline its production process and accelerate delivery to customers, Wheelabrator needed a tighter link between its engineering and manufacturing processes. This enables engineers to design and test while production staff assemble equipment on the shop floor. Because engineers and production managers work in the same system, they can exchange information quicker than was previously possible, improving the efficiency and accuracy of the production process. “Given the evolutionary nature of custom manufacturing, the ability to quickly implement change requests is essential,” states Hawthorne.Tracking Project Costs
Wheelabrator relies on the core model to track project costs more efficiently, from the original quote to the delivery of equipment to a customer. This means that production personnel can easily identify and address process inefficiencies. Further, managers can quickly access current production data to
increase the effectiveness of inventoryplanning and management efforts. “With improved visibility into all of our projects, we have a much more realistic and accurate picture of the total cost of any given project,” says Hawthorne. “This gives us more precise insight and helps us make accurate decisions around when to subcontract out a portion of a project.”
Implementing the Core Model Globally
In addition to the UK implementation, Wheelabrator worked with Columbus IT to implement the core model at its facilities in Germany, taking advantage of the multisite, multilanguage capabilities of Microsoft Dynamics AX to streamline the deployment process. “The flexibility of Microsoft Dynamics
AX made it cost effective to localize the customizations that we developed for the
U.K. deployment,” says Hawthorne. With help from Columbus IT and To-Increase, Wheelabrator achieved an average deployment time of six months. “The industry expertise of the team from Columbus IT and To-Increase played a major role in helping us enhance and extend the built-in functionality of Microsoft Dynamics AX to meet our needs,” says Hawthorne. As Wheelabrator continues its phased rollout of the core model to additional subsidiaries in Europe, the company is evaluating implementations in several other regions throughout its global network.
Benefits
With Microsoft Dynamics AX for Industrial Equipment Manufacturing, Wheelabrator has centralized its IT infrastructure to increase operational efficiency and improve visibility while expanding its capacity for growth and streamlining its global operations. “The Wheelabrator core model built on Microsoft
Dynamics AX for Industrial Equipment Manufacturing is the key to restructuring our global operation to be more efficient and responsive to our customers,” says Hawthorne.
Increased Operational Efficiency
Wheelabrator expects to achieve shorter cycle times by using Microsoft Dynamics AX for Industrial Equipment Manufacturing, resulting in faster product delivery. The system serves as a single point of entry for multiple roles throughout the organization, from sales to customer service, enabling employees to share business intelligence or communicate project-status information in less time. “Because people from all of our major departments work in the same system, they can collaborate and exchange critical business information with ease,” says Hawthorne.
Enhanced Visibility
Wheelabrator now has a single view of multiple facilities and easy access to detailed information across departments within a single location. The Wheelabrator and Columbus IT teams structured the Wheelabrator core model around a projectbased