Driving significant cost savings for auto technology specialist

Dana is a world leader in the supply of highly engineered drivetrain, sealing, and thermal-management technologies that improve the efficiency and performance of vehicles with both conventional and alternative-energy powertrains. Serving three primary markets – passenger vehicle, commercial truck, and off-highway equipment – Dana provides the world’s original equipment manufacturers and the aftermarket with local product and service support through a network of nearly 100 engineering, manufacturing, and distribution facilities.

Challenge

A software implementation executed correctly, compared to one done poorly, is the difference between night and day, according to Andrew Moore, Chief Financial Officer for Dana Australia.

“We should know because we have experienced the results of both,” says Moore. “What we have at our fingertips now thanks to DXC Oxygen is vastly different to the weaknesses in our original SAP Business One implementation.”

Moore says the original project was poorly conceived. It was led by finance and IT and not enough consultation was carried out with end users. Lack of ownership and poor training doomed the ambitious implementation.

Using air freight to get parts into Australia in time to meet its commitment to truck and car manufacturers was just one of many problems the company endured following its original move to SAP Business One.

“Unfortunately that implementation suffered from a number of issues, and we ended up having to heavily customise the system – as well as incorporate several third party software packages – to make our production and reporting work.”

“We had to develop a lot of processes outside the core ERP system, and we were heavily reliant on external consultants for support because no-one within the business had a good grasp of the entire environment. As a result no one had any faith in the numbers and reporting.”

Solution

Dana made the decision to re-implement its SAP Business One software in order to solve its IT predicament. “We wanted to continue with SAP, because globally that’s what Dana has mandated. But first, we needed a systems integrator that could peel back the original project and then deploy the latest version of SAP Business One in a way that matched our core needs.”

Moore says he was recommended DXC Oxygen as the right partner for the job. “They had a radically different approach. They took the time to understand the fundamentals of our business from the bottom up. They engaged at all levels of the organisation and they challenged users to re-examine how things were done in order to adopt best practices throughout the company.”

Oxygen also suggested a staged implementation process – implementing the software using its Agile methodology in bite size pieces.

The on time and on budget project begun by DXC Oxygen, upgraded and rationalised Dana’s SAP Business One software, and removed the poorly conceived third party software integrations that plagued its 2011 implementation.

Result

The specialist automotive technology company now has a fully integrated business management platform that is saving it time and money. Most importantly, says Moore, everyone – from executive management to shop floor users – trusts the integrity of the new system.

“Thanks to the upgrade we have vastly improved our inventory management to the point it has delivered a very significant cost saving for the business.”

The results since going live with the software are testament to the success of the implementation, Moore says. “DXC Oxygen delivered a fantastic project. Our global IT group now hold the project up as an example of excellence.”

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