Lawson Mardon Case Study

Lawson Mardon, an ALCAN PACKAGING company, is a large and successful manufacturer of flexible packaging material. As part of its continued development and investment it planned to implement SAP, with the aim of improving cost performance and customer service. Having made a considerable investment in new technology, the management was keen to see a return. The company recognised that a change to the business process was essential.

The question was why? The system was working successfully and staff had been trained, but somehow the business did not seem to be operating any more effectively. In trying to discover th answer MML were asked to conduct a diagnostic review.

We carried out a wide ranging questionnaire-based survey and backed this up with a smaller number of detailed interviews, focusing on the main issues exposed by the questionnaire. The study revealed two fundamental issues:

• the system configuration and implementation had been led by IT;
• the users had little knowledge or experience of the principles of ERP.

It appeared to us that business improvement had somehow slipped down the gap in understanding between these two groups. The implementation team had not understood what the users needed to run the business more effectively, and the users did not know how to apply the functionality the system offered. They had been trained to use what had been implemented, but this meant they only knew “what” to do — what screens to use or what keys to press. To realise the potential from SAP they needed to know “how” as well. How:

• ERP can be used to run the business — how the theory works in practice;
• the parameters within ERP work, what effect they have and how to set them;
• to identify which options would give the best fit to the process they wanted to run.

Having helped to identify the problem we were asked to help close the knowledge gap. Over a relatively short period of time we ran a series of tailored in-house courses. These were built around one of our business simulation models that we modified to reflect the main issues and performance targets they were facing. The course provided a detailed overview of how to use ERP to run the business.

The course was delivered to almost everyone from director to supervisor. It gave them the opportunity to learn how ERP can be used to make the supply chain work efficiently. More importantly, using the simulation we could coach them to apply that knowledge and see how it impacted the business for themselves.

The result was a major shift in attitude and ability. Using their new capabilities, they introduced fundamental changes to the order fulfilment and the shop floor processes. Sales, logistics and operations spoke a common language and worked as a team.

The benefits were impressive. In the first full year's trading working capital improved significantly and customer service levels improved. Technology has the potential to deliver considerable improvement, but to get a return the people using it need to be given the competency and knowledge to apply it.