Triumph Speedmaster
The iconic British manufacturer decided two years ago to
replace a whole swathe of legacy systems with a business suite based around the
Infor LN manufacturing ERP system, integrated with supply chain, customer
relationship and human capital management applications. Helping people adjust
to the new systems has been a crucial element of the preparation, says Parsons:
"Triumph is now rolling out the first phase, which links
manufacturing systems to its dealerships. HCM is scheduled for early next year,
with the full suite expected to be completed by the end of calendar 2019. It’s
been learning from talking to other manufacturers who have undertaken a similar
transformation, including Italian car maker Ferrari. The full deployment will
support 1600 users across 24 countries, including manufacturing plants in the
UK, Thailand, Brazil and India."
How Triumph has changed
It’s all part of big shift to bring the company’s internal
operations into line with its external image as a premium lifestyle brand. In
the past two years, Triumph has opened up its historic manufacturing base at
Hinckley, Leicestershire, to offer factory tours as part of its on-site visitor
experience. It also hosts school tours to encourage STEM education and careers.
“Fifteen years ago it would have been unthinkable to allow customers in our
factory,” says Parsons. That changed ethos has inevitably led to an overhaul of
the internal systems:
On the inside we still felt not premium at all — we had a
lot of manual processes, our data wasn’t connected. The partnership with Infor
is about matching up how we operate on the inside with what people expect from
the outside.
With the first phase connecting dealers into the
manufacturing process, it means customers who order a new Triumph can make
changes to the specification much later in the process, and can see the bike in
various stages of build. The new system keeps them informed in a way that
simply wasn’t possible before, says Parsons.
Customers expect that. In our old software platforms they
wouldn’t allow us to forecast a delivery date for a motorcycle. Now we can tell
the dealer and the customer when that bike will be delivered.
When the new HCM system goes online in the new year, Parsons
expects that line managers will see huge benefits from self-service tools that
will give employees the ability to update information directly, such as changes
of address or holiday requests.
He’s also keen to start using Infor’s talent science tools,
which will help employees to profile their strengths and development needs. One
intriguing use case is to fine-tune the aptitudes of people joining product
design teams, he says — harnessing more creative personalities early in the
process, then switching to those with more attention to detail later on, when
ability to deliver comes to the fore.
SOURCE: Diginomica
Story By: Phil Wainewright
