As a Polish metal foundry company that’s more than 180 years old, Metalpol has evolved its business over time—shifting from steel to cast iron production in the 1860s, investing in a new horizontal molding line in the early 2000s, and more. Ready for another transformation, Metalpol sought a new business system that could not only manage production, but also optimize business processes—such as calculating product profitability. By implementing Infor SyteLine/CloudSuite Industrial (CSI), Metalpol has been able to do all that and more.
Business Processes Optimization
When Metalpol realized it was time to invest in a new business system, the company needed to find a solution that could serve its unique production needs as a manufacturer of castings for the automotive, machine, agricultural, construction and public works, industrial fittings, mining, and railway industries.
“Thanks to the investment in SyteLine we significantly reduced inventory levels and improved materials management planning. SyteLine helps us manage our business better and increase our market share.”
– Wlodzimierz Walaszek, Vice President of the Board and CEO, Metalpol
The Problems
- Difficulty ensuring critical data was aligned across all departments.
- As the company grew, its legacy system could not keep up with its business process and production needs.
The Results
- Increased market share
- Improved cost calculation ease and accuracy
- Reduced inventory levels
- Standardized data across all business units
- Improved materials management planning and customer service levels
Additionally, the solution needed to be able to calculate the margin of each of Metalpol’s products, so that the company could accurately and reliably determine profitability. The company was also counting on the new solution to help optimize business processes for all of its 250 employees.
Data Standardization
One of Metalpol’s biggest challenges was overcoming the difficulty of ensuring that critical data was properly aligned across all departments. For instance, the company was using multiple indexes that covered diverse material items, products, and semi-products. To address these and other obstacles, Metalpol looked at 18 possible business solutions. After careful consideration of all options, Metalpol chose Infor SyteLine as the business system that could best meet its needs.
The solution was successfully implemented and then upgraded a few short years later to include enhanced finance and company resource management functionality, as well as additional industry specific capabilities.
Currently, around 60 users at Metalpol use SyteLine in areas such as design, planning, technology, purchasing, sales, warehousing, finance, and advanced quality control.
“SyteLine allowed us to build a versatile solution for production process management, which assures up-to-date information is always available to management. Also, our customer service level was improved.”
– Wlodzimierz Walaszek, Vice President of the Board and CEO, Metalpol
Up-to-Date Information
With SyteLine in place, Metalpol was able to ensure all data was consistent and maintained in a single, shared source. According to Włodzimierz Walaszek, Vice President of the Board and CEO of Metalpol, “SyteLine allows us to better manage our company finances and has contributed towards standardization of data accessed by individual business units.”
As a result, “with standardized information it’s easier to do the cost calculations for different products we manufacture and to assess their profitability,” according to Walaszek. Metalpol’s salespeople also now have access to key product information that has allowed them to communicate more effectively with customers and help improve customer service levels.
“SyteLine allowed us to build a versatile solution for production process management, which assures up-to-date information is always available to management,” states Walaszek. The improvement in company-wide business processes is in large part due to SyteLine’s industry-specific functionality and the solution’s ability to focus on employee role-based information, user preferences, intuitive navigation, and ease of use.
Increased Market Share
With SyteLine, Metalpol was able to improve production performance, reporting, and competencies concerning business processes. SyteLine also allowed Metalpol to “significantly reduce inventory levels and improve materials management planning,” according to Walaszek. Perhaps most importantly is the impact SyteLine has had on the company’s day-to-day operations and its bottom line. Walaszek reports that “SyteLine helps us manage our business better and increase our market share.”
“SyteLine allows us to better manage our company finances and has contributed towards standardization of data accessed by individual business units. It’s easier to do the cost calculations for different products we manufacture and to assess their profitability.”
– Wlodzimierz Walaszek, Vice President of the Board and CEO, Metalpol